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

like water," and the overwhelming need to prevent another such conflict.
There were no evidences of any warfare on a scale that vast here; conflict
between Clans or individuals was kept within acceptable bounds.

So perhaps they warred until their own home-world was destroyed. Or
perhaps they were the losers in a conflict that would permit the survival of
no one but the winners. Another reason to keep our existence from them...

Only the humans were native; whatever level of culture they had achieved
before the arrival of the elves was long lost by the time the Kin appeared. By
then, the elves had firmly imposed their order on the world about them, with
the elves as undisputed masters and the humans as subject slaves.

And that, of course, was a situation creating fertile ground for mischief...

She was drifting again. She became annoyed at herself. She had managed the
other three shifts easily enough. She had been able to keep her mind on her
element. What was wrong with her now?

She started to stretch; remembered, again, that she couldn't and decided
irritably that the problem was the simple one of boredom. As the eagle, she
had learned entirely new things about flying and wind and air-currents;
feathers behaved in a manner altogether unlike membranous wings. As the
delphin, she'd had a whole new world to explore; it had been very hard to
leave that form and journey onwards. Even as the cedar, there had been a
forest full of life around her, and she had been able to move, at least to a
limited extent.

Here, in the desert, there was nothing but herself and the magical energies of
the spring.

Maybe if she did something instead of sitting there--like a--a stone!

Alara had not seen even fifty of this world's summers--as the Kin of her Lair
went, she was very young. Some said too young, especially for the position
of shaman. Some said too headstrong, too contrary, never mind that the
shaman was supposed to be the dissenting voice.

She broke custom too often for comfort. She broke it in taking the rank so
young; she broke it whenever it seemed to her that "custom" was just an
excuse for not wanting to change. They listened to her, but they thought she
was reckless, headstrong. And maybe they were right. But maybe she was
right, and the Kin were letting this soft world lure them into a long dream in
the sun.

At least they still listened to her.

So far. She wondered how far she could push them. They couldn't unmake
her, but they could ignore her.