"Elizabeth Moon - Those who Walk in Darkness" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

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Moon, Elizabeth - Lunar Activity SS 10- Those Who Walk in Darkness


tucked his cold hands into his armpits, and crouched. He wished he
was at home, tucked in the warm bed with his brother, safe behind
that locked door. He imagined his motherтАЩs arms around him, the
soothing salve she would spread on his back, the sweet asar she
would brew for him. Something clanged, down the street; his head
jerked up. When he looked, the watchmen were closer, but they
turned a corner down a side alley and disappeared. He closed his
eyes, but the vision of home would not return. Not in comfort, at
least. He seemed to see his mother, frightened, wringing her hands
and staring wide-eyed at his father, who held a scrap of bloodied
cloak. He remembered all too clearly the changes in the last few
years, the new lines in his fatherтАЩs face, the silent glances from one
elder to another, that began with the first of the red priests holding
ceremony in the old Guildhall underground.
He looked up the street to see the grange door still pouring light
onto the cobbles. It looked warmтАФbut it couldnтАЩt be warm with the
door open like that. He sighed, leaning back until his back hit the
wall, then wincing. Blast that RakiтАФsurely the welts had reopened!
He couldnтАЩt feel his feet any more, and his teeth chattered. He
thought of his uncleтАЩs tales of the north, of merchants dying in the
snow when they fell asleep. With an effort he pushed himself
upright, and stamped, nearly falling when one leg gave way. It was
too cold to stay there, and he was hungry, andтАФhe looked again at
the grange door, with the shadow crossing and recross-ing that light.
What had she been like in armor? he wondered suddenly. He had
thought of paladins as shining, brilliant like stars. Once he had seen
oneтАФor thought he hadтАФand from the crowdтАЩs murmur it might

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Moon, Elizabeth - Lunar Activity SS 10- Those Who Walk in Darkness


have been. But in the priestsтАЩ hands, she had been nothing much to
seeтАФexcept those eyes. And the steady voice, refusing them. And
the wounds, at the end, healing without any aid he could see.
He had moved enough to shiver again, dancing in place, but his
breath was giving out. How had she insisted that Gird would help
her, when she was helpless in their hands? How had she been taken?
Had she fought at all? He knew the Marshals by reputation; no thief
would fight one openly. Paladins fought even better, by the storiesтАФ
how had they captured her without a fight? He wished he could ask
her. He wanted to know why she wasnтАЩt afraid, and why she hadnтАЩt
been angry, fighting. He could not imagine that.
The light drew his eyes, a broad yellow stripe. Across and across
the shadow marched. He would be unafraid, whoever that was, man