"Kate Novak & Jeff Grubb - Lost Gods 3 - Tymora's Luck" - читать интересную книгу автора (Novak Kate)

Lathander appeared every bit as impressive as Chauntea. His face shone like the sun, and his
hair burned a fiery orange-red. Were Lathander a mortal, Bors would have judged him to be a
young man. The god's physique was slender and athletic, and his features were divinely handsome.
He wore an opalescent robe of red, pink, and yellow, open at the chest and bound at the waist with a
red and gold sash. The robe and sash billowed out behind him as he flew toward the goddess of the
harvest. He made a magnificent spectacle, as lovely as the dawn itself. His magnificence, however,
was lost on Chauntea, whose attention was focused on the ground and her planting.
Lathander smiled, apparently amused that Chauntea was so engrossed in her task that she
didn't seem to notice him. He landed in the field just behind her.
Without turning from her task, Chauntea addressed her newly arrived companion.
"Lathander, the seedlings' roots and stems won't be able to break through the earth if you compact it
with your weight," the goddess chided.
"Sorry," Lathander replied, immediately levitating once again so that his golden sandals
hovered inches off the ground. He floated about so that he and Chauntea were face-to-face. "Sweet
dawning," he whispered near her ear. His voice held the husky tone of one lover to another.
"Sweet dawning," Chauntea replied softly. She brushed his cheek with a kiss. There was
something perfunctory about the goddess's action, however, and she prodded Lathander gently so
that he hovered to one side of her furrow. She continued her planting.
"A new universe lies aborning out beyond the worlds of the Tuhgri," Lathander said with a
twinkle in his eyes. "The tiny crystal spheres are nested together like faerie-dragon eggs. Whenever
a wave of phlogiston washes over them they bump against one another, and you can hear them
chime over the humming of the void."
Chauntea laughed lightly. "Voids can't hum," she replied.
Lathander sank again to the ground before the goddess. His feet sank in the soft earth. He
slid one hand behind Chauntea's back and with the other grabbed at her braid of hair and wrapped it
about his waist. "They do," he insisted, "but you have to get very close to them and listen very
quietly for a very long time. Come with me and I will show you."
Chauntea put her fingertips on the Morninglord's chest to keep him from embracing her
closer. "Lathander, it is planting season. You know that I must tend this field to insure the fecundity
of the Realms."
"What will it matter if the crop is a day late?" Lathander whispered. He tilted his head and
pressed his lips to the curve of her throat.
Chauntea smiled, but when the god began pulling her backward through the field, she broke
away abruptly. "Lathander," she reprimanded her companion sharply, "if you do not stop churning
the field with your feet, there will be crop failure in Halruaa this season."
"They can buy grain from Amn. It will teach the wizard kingdom something about
cooperation," Lathander said glibly. "Come with me, Chauntea. The growing season is very lovely,
but it comes every year. The birth of a new universe, on the other hand, is not only beautiful but
also rare."
Chauntea sighed with exasperation. "Lathander, you might just as well tell the sun to hold
off rising in the morning. My duties cannot wait."
"The last time I saw a new universe blossom," Lathander said sadly, "Tyche was my
companion. We lay on the back of a space whale and watched for a full year as the crystal spheres
grew larger and spread apart and the stars inside them flickered to life and brightened."
"Tyche always did have too much time to fritter away," Chauntea muttered, scattering a
handful of seed in the furrow before her. "I'm sorry, Lathander, but my work is more important."
"I want to share this with someone," Lathander insisted stubbornly.
"Well, Tyche is gone, and I am busy. You'll have to find someone else. Why don't you seek
out Tyche's daughters, Beshaba or Tymora? Perhaps one of them has time to lie on the back of a
space whale."