"Melanie Rawn - Dragon Star 2 - The Dragon Token" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rawn Melanie)

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CHAPTER ONE

The rush of wings startled Pol. It was not the sound of dragon wings, strong and sure in the dusk,
but the swift feathery strokes of a dozen hawks. Independent like all predators, the hawks clung
together now like timid waterfowl fleeing winter. Tiny golden bells on their jesses flashed with
the last sunlight as they sought to climb higher and higher into the sky.

Escaped, was Pol's first thought. His second: ReleasedтАФand panicked. They don't know where to fly
when they're not flown at prey.

Maarken watched, too, absently picking at the crusted blood on his tunic. A mere pinprick in his
shoulder, it might have taken him; he had been Sunrunning when the arrow struck his flesh. Only
its quick removal had saved his life. "They'll find it hungry living in the Desert. I wonder how
they got out of the mews."

Pol steadied his horse as the tired animal stumbled. "Their hoods are gone. Someone freed them."
Turning in his saddle, he watched the remnants of an army trudge past. "Maarken. . . ."

"Yes?"

"It hurts."

Faradh'im usually possessed an excellent sense of direction. The scent of Water, the sighing of
Air, the sun's Fire, the feel of EarthтАФall these things combined to tell a Sunrunner precisely
where was where without having to think about it, even in unfamiliar territory.

No one had ever taught Hollis how to discern direction underground.

Elemental presences there were, but she could make little of them. Moisture oozed at intervals
from cool, smoothly hewn walls, and a breeze from somewhere bent the candle flames and torches.
But it was the profound silence of rock that seemed to change her perceptions of all else, a quiet
extending for measures all around her. In the world above, sky made of wind and light arched
overhead, and the ground was divided by rivers. Here, Earth had complete dominion. Water slid
stealthily from stone, and Air crept past, and even Fire seemed to hunker warily. Hollis did not
know where she was, with the familiar balance of forces gone and only one Element surrounding her:
brooding, silent, massive Earth.

She had called a halt to their journey through the passage, knowing that while there must be
others as unnerved by this place as she, they must also all catch up with each other. They had
been walkingтАФsometimes up gentle slopes and occasionally a series of four or five steps, but
mostly downтАФfor what seemed like years. Hollis' only indication of the time was the fat candle
Betheyn had taken from a storeroom, one of those marked with dark lines and made to burn in
precise time to the levels of a water clock. It had descended five lines of the nightтАФor at least
what was night up above. Here there was always darkness.

The idea made her shiver slightly. She refused to think about it, just as she refused to think
about Rohan and Sioned and Chay and Pol and most especially Maarken. And about the weight of the
Earth pressing all around her, stifling Air and Fire and Water.