"Andre Norton & Lackey, Mercedes - Elvenbane 1 -The Elvenbane" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

permitted herself a moment of self-pity. A shaman's life was not her own.

But Alara was not of the temper to wallow in self-pity for long. Duties, yes,
she mused, but pleasures as well. Best of all was being the FireRunner--

There was nothing like it; choosing the fiercest of the weather patterns,
forcing the lightning to hold back until the breaking point--

Then calling it, a hundred killer bolts at once, and streaking down out of the
sky with the fire a spine's length away from her tail, diving, falling like a
stone out of the heavens and down, into a narrow cleft just wide enough for
her to drop through it, lined on all sides with carefully placed jewels, gems
that the lightning would tune and charge...

Gems winking, a rainbow of stars set in the walls, the rock itself a breath
away from her wings, the air actually splitting with her passage, and the fires
of heaven chasing her down into the earth--while the gems in her wake
blazed until the cleft behind was alight with a hundred colors of glory--

Until at the last minute she would break through into the cavern beneath,
spread her wings with a thunder of her own, and snap-roll out of the way as
the last of the lightning discharged itself into the floor of the cavern, fusing
the rock and sand at the contact point, and stray discharges crackled over her
as she landed...

She started to sigh; then, when she couldn't, recalled her form and purpose
for being here. She was supposed to be contemplating Fire. Earth-fire. She
didn't think lightning counted.

She stretched her earth-senses again, sending them resolutely downward. She
hoped she was doing it right. She wasn't a shaman when she carried Keman.
And all Father Dragon would tell her when she had left on this pilgrimage
was: "Do what you feel is right." She still felt more than a little disgruntled
by his apparent lack of cooperation. She knew it was part of a shaman's work
to give no direct answers, but she thought it was carrying things a bit too far
to play the same game with another shaman!

And she could almost hear Father Dragon saying "Oh, no it isn't____"

There were times when this business of being contrary got on her nerves, and
she was the one being contrary!

But that was what she was supposed to do. She was supposed to keep the Kin
awake; supposed to see that they didn't become too complacent and look for
easy answers. Or frivolous ones...

Easy answers and complacency were very much a danger among the Kin.
Ever since they had come to this world, there had been very little to
challenge them.
Alara herself had been born here, but she had memorized every tale and