"Pierce, Tamora - Circle Of Magic 03 - Daja's Book E-Txt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pierce Tamora)

Sandry urged her pony forward. Tris, Briar and Little Bear fell in beside her.
Daja stayed where she was for a moment, her troubled dark eyes still on the blazes.
How could anything as wonderful as fire look so menacing? she wondered. She
worked with it every day; it was her friend. What if one day it turned against her as it
had against Gold RidgeТs fields?
УStay in pijule fakol, where you belong,Ф she muttered to the distant flames. Clucking
to her pony, she rode to catch up with her friends.
The next day Daja entered a small mountain smithy, loaded down with tools. She
dropped everything beside the rough anvil, then realized that the staff she always
carried had fallen to the ground as well. Swiftly she grabbed it from the pile, dusting
its polished wood. She rested the staff against the wall near the hearth, stopping for a
moment to run her fingers over its mirror-bright, unmarked brass cap. That bit of
metalwork told those who knew how to read Trader staffs that she was trangshi, an
outcast, with the worst luck in the world.

She turned her back on it and surveyed the cramped and dirty smithy. I wish I were
home, she thought, eyeing the forge.
Home was the temple city of Winding Circle, where her master had a proper, clean,
well-lit forge. This dismal place was the twelfth smithy that she had worked in since
the DukeТs train began its journey. She was alone; the smith - , who was also the
village headman - was talking with the Duke about what was needed to help this tiny
valley survive the winter.
The smithТs absence, at least, was a good thing. Even his apprentice was gone,
visiting a sick mother. She hated working in front of strangers. She was also tired of
back-country craftsmen who told her and her teacher Frostpine that they had things
soft in Winding Circle. As if we did no real work of our own, she thought, inspecting
the stone forge. Here was a pleasant surprise: the smithТs apprentice must have
cleaned out the nest-shaped firepit, and laid kindling for a new fire. HeТd left her that
much less work.
Looking at the kindling, she reached deep inside her to find her magic. Drawing out
just a touch, she blew it into the firepit. Flames sprang up instantly.
Next she sent her power outside through the wall, to the other end of the tube through
which the outdoor bellows pumped air under the fire inside. Since that summer, when
Sandry had made the four friendsТ magics into one, they had been able to talk in
thought-form and to enter each otherТs minds if they needed to. The ability was quite
useful, particularly when one of them needed something from the others. Tri-is... Daja
mind-called,
/ know, I know. The magic under Trisana ChandlerТs reply felt like cool winds and
heavy mist. / had to move the bellows out of the opening. You might want to stand
away from the fire.
Not too much at first, Daja told her, then backed up. The burning heap of kindling
fluttered, then blazed as air from the outside was thrust in under its flames. Daja
heaped more charcoal around the sides of the kindling. Once it had caught, she added
still more. Now give me some real air, she told her friend.
The answer came in the shape of a heavier stream of wind rushing through the
opening under the forge. More charcoal caught. Daja stacked fuel until she had the
right kind of fire to work her iron rods with.
Just keep it steady for now, she mind-called to her friend. / hope you brought
something to read.
She felt Tris settle on a bench near the opening in the wall. Using one hand the other