"Silistra - 02 - The Golden Sword" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morris Janet E)

Stealthy desert stalker, he craved the kill. Within him was a terrible anger. He
cared only for his satisfaction. He was what a Slayer might have been, were
there no Day-KeepersТ laws to restrain him.
And Hael, the Day-Keeper, I read also. I liked what I saw no better. The picture
I had for him was that of the kepher, that tree dweller from the swamps of
Galesh, with its warted skin and suckнered, webbed feet, that waits invisible
upon the bark for unsuspecting wirragaets. I saw its long, sticky tongue shoot
out, waving. I could only wonнder at the visionТs meaning.
The two, knelt together, fitting pieces of wood like demented children with a
puzzle. As I watched, the three-level board took shape under the light from the
middle stanchion. It was the yris-tera, part game and, part oracle, that is
played by forereaders and Day-Keepers for its auguries, by Slayers and advisers
for its, strategies, by children for the fun of the contest.
When they had it built, they settled around it with the leather shaker, in which
were the sixty game pieces of carved bone, and began to play. I was forgotten,
ignored, as the first throw was cast.
Upon the first level of the board fell the spear and shield, and the dayglass.
Through the shots in the first level tumbled two threx and the woman and man
symbols, to land upon the second, and the fire and spear, and the Well, to land
upon the third.
Chayin spat, disgusted. He still wore the ShaperТs cloak, thrown back over his
shoulders. Upon his arms I could see his tattoos, rippling as if with their own
life as he shook the leather cylinder, to throw again. Upon his right arm was
the slitsa, curled around the undulating Parset blade. On his left the
uritheria, symbol of his rank covered his entire bicep, winding around it, its
tail trailing down his forearm. Its fanged mouth was open, its forked tongue
seemed to dart and writhe in the uncertain light, its leathery wings about to
snap into flight.
A jiask entered, bearing two full bladders, one larger than the other. He passed
me without notice, and stood before the cahndor and the Day-Keeper, bent over
the board. Chayin nodded absently to him. The jiask laid the two bladders by
ChayinТs side. He looked at the board, and his brows knit together.
СIs it for Frullo jer?Ф asked the jiask.
УFor what else could it be?Ф The cahndorТs tone was sour. The jiask squatted
down to watch. Hael leaned forward as Chayin threw again. The oil lamp picked
out the Day-KeepersТ signs in blues and reds upon his shoulders; the compass,
the dayglass which contains the world, the eight-pointed star in circle. Within
that star I saw glyphs I did not recognize. All except for one. That one I had
seen upon EstraziТs ring, and upon the platнform beneath the Falls of Santha.
The glyph means УmessengerФ in Mi Сysten. I wondered if it were by chance that
he wore it.
I was not pleased by my reading. Doubtless, I thought, it was the drug they had
given me, blockнing my talent. I, who wore the deep-readersТ chain, had gotten
little help from my strongest skill.
The second throw gave Chayin another woman upon the top level; an ebvrasea,
winged fury, oppoнsite one threx, and a sword upon the other, on the middle; and
two men and one woman upon the bottom. The placement of these was most unusual,
one woman and man beside the Well, and the other obstructing them with the fire
and spear. These, certainly, were no random falls. Sometimes one can get much
from the boards, sometimes little. It was my guess that this game might show the