"Andre Norton - Brother To Shadows" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

Brother could be taken anywhere, used at any time against his own will, or the will of his
Master, was inconceivable. He had skills of body and will, honed mastery of mind to
shield him there. But when he tried to think to whom he might offer those skills now he
found himself at a loss.

Finally, deciding that sure attempts at foreseeing were only useless, he shut down that
portion of his mind and concentrated on the journey itself.

It was twilight when he came to where he must take the cutoff for the pass. Long trained
to scout work, he could slip through the bare-branched brush and work his way up into
the heights easily enough. He sheltered that night in a half cave where two great rocks
tilted together.

Once he had his fire, hardly wider than his two hands held thumb to thumb, and had
chewed the tough trail mix of meat pounded with dried fruit into a strip, he turned to the
fitting of himself for what might well be the trials of tomorrow.

First he sought out The Center of All Things, concentrating on the mental symbols which
marked the existence of that. Then he visualized the inner workings of his own body, the
muscles, the nerves, the blood and bones, the knitting of the flesh. From his toes he began
to use The Flow of Inner Life, drawing it up through him, into his mid body, his arms and
shoulders, until his hands, where they rested on his knees as he sat cross-legged, grew
warm and each finger tingled.

Into his throat, his head, the flood continued. There was a feeling of elation but that he
was swift to dampen. He was not summoning battle power. Only the strength needed for
travel.

He breathed deeply three times, to lock in that warmth. Then he relaxed, aware that he
had prepared himself as best he could. Now he set his sentinels of alarm that he might
take a full night's rest. At least those were available to all travelers and so the Shagga
priest could not refuse him them.

Jofre worked the three large pebbles out of their traveling bag and, with a knowing eye,
in spite of the dark which had now closed in, he positioned them in the gravel about the
rock. Such were quick to give alarm when approached by anything warm-blooded to
which they had not been bound, as he had bound these with a drop of his own blood and
the warmth of his bared hand.
Having taken his precautions, Jofre rolled in his double blanket and went to sleep, rest
easily summoned by his long training.

There was no show of either moon tonight and clouds were heavy, though they had not
yet loosed their burdens. Through their thickness sped the Kag. The creature lit on a spur
of rock and hunched into a motionless blot of darkness, only to launch itself again and
seize a warfin which had ventured out to hunt. Bearing the bird to its chosen perch, it
ripped apart the body and fed ravenously, then settled to rest as had its quarry below.

Jofre awoke at dawn. He chewed another strip of journey rations, adding to that only a
single finger scoop of yellowish paste from a small box. The Brothers did not depend
often on stimulants but they had their own kinds of energy-inducing herbal concoctions.