"Tamora Pierce - Circle Opens 4 - Shatterglass" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pierce Tamora)

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CHAPTER ONE
Tharios, capital of the city-state ofTharios On the Ithocot Sea

The short, plump redhead walked out of the house that belonged to her hostess and looked around, her air
that of someone about to embark on a grand adventure. She shook out her pale blue cotton dress and
petticoats, then wrapped a collection of breezes around her chubby person as someone else might drape
the folds of a shawl before she went to market. The breezes came obediently to her call, having become
so much a part of her in the girlтАЩs travels that they no longer rebelled. They spun around her black cotton
stockings and sensible leather shoes, raced along the folds of skirt and petticoats, slid along the girlтАЩs
arms and over her sunburned, long-nosed face. They swept over the spectacles that shielded intense grey
eyes framed by long, gold lashes, and twined themselves over and along her head. They followed the
paths of her double handful of copper braids, all pinned neatly to her scalp in a series of rings that left no
end visible. Only two long, thin braids were allowed to hang free. They framed either side of her stubborn
face.

With her breezes placed to her satisfaction, guardians against the intense southern heat, the girl whistled.
The big, shaggy white dog that was busily marking the corners of the house whuffed at her.

тАЬCome on, Little Bear,тАЭ ordered Trisana Chandler, known to her friends as Tris. тАЬItтАЩs not really your
house anyway.тАЭ

The dog fell in step beside the girl, tongue lolling in cheerful good humour. His white curls, recently
washed, bounced with his trot; his long, plumed tail was a proud banner. He was a big animal, his head on
a level with TrisтАЩs breastbone. Despite his size, he wore the air of an easy-to-please puppy as effortlessly
as the girl wore her breezes.

Tris strode down the flagstone path and out through the university gates without so much as a backward
glance at the glory of white stucco and marble that crowned the hill above the house. She thought that the
university, called Heskalifos, was fine, in its own right, and its high point тАФ the soaring tower known as
Phakomathen тАФ was pretty, but there were perfectly good universities in the north. She was on her way
to see the true glory of Tharios, its glassmakers. Let her teacher Niko join their hostess Jumshida and
many other learned mages and apprentices in their long-winded, long-lasting presentations on the nature
of any and all vision magics. Tris, on the other hand, тАЬwas interested in the kind of visual magic wrought
by someone who held a blowpipe that bore molten glass on its end.

At one of the many side entrances to the grounds of Heskalifos, Tris halted and scowled. Had Jumshida
said to turn left or go straight once she was outside the university enclosure?


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A girl her own age stood nearby at a loading dock, emptying the contents of a rubbish barrel into the back
of a cart. The muscles of her arms stood out like steel cables. Though she was clearly female, she wore