"Jennifer Roberson - Sword Dancer 3 - Sword Maker" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberson Jennifer)

steel in her flesh.
I was shaking. Abruptly I turned from the stud and went back to the
cairn.
Leaned down, caught up the sheath and harness, closed my fist around
the hilt.
In my hand the cold metal warmed at once, sweet and seductive; gritting
teeth, I
yanked the blade free of sheath and bared it in firelight, letting
flame set
steel to glowing. It ran down the blade like water, pausing only
briefly to pool
in the runes I now knew as well as I knew my name.
I was shaking. With great care, I took the sword with me to one of the
massive
piles of broken boulders, found a promising fissure, wedged the blade
into it.
Tested the seating: good. Then locked both hands around the hilt,
meaning to
snap it in two. Once and for all, to break it, for what it had done to
Del.
Samiel sang to me. A small, private song.
He was hungry, still so hungry, with a thirst that knew no bounds. If I
broke
him, I would kill him. Was I willing to run that risk?
I tightened my hands on the hilt. Gritted teeth--shut my eyes--
And slid the blade, ringing, very carefully out of the fissure.
I turned. Sat. Slumped, leaning against the boulders. Cradling the
deadly
jivatma; the one I had made my own.
I rested my temple against the pommel of the twisted-silk hilt. It was
cool and
soothing, as if it sensed my anguish.
"I must be getting old," I muttered. "Old--and tired. What am I
now--thirty-four? Thirty-five?" I stuck out a hand and, one by one,
folded thumb
and fingers absently. "Let's see... the Salset found me when I was half
a day
old... kept me for--sixteen years? Seventeen? Hoolies, who can be
sure?" I
scowled into distance. "Hard to keep track of years when you don't even
have a
name." I chewed my lip, thinking. "Say, sixteen years with the Salset.
Easiest.
Seven years as an apprentice to my shodo, learning the sword... and
thirteen
years since then, as a professional sword-dancer." The shock was cold
water. "I
could be thirty-six."
I peered the length of my body, even slumped as I was. Under all the
wool I