"Justin Stanchfield - Sisterhood of the Stone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stanchfield Justin)

"It's little more than a tower and a few ruins around the cliff so grown in it
would take a thousand lifetimes to clear the jungle back. As far as anyone
knows, it might not be a temple at all. The Old Ones didn't leave anything but
bare walls when they left."
"Tell me you don't believe in the ancient astronaut myth?"
"Someone left those ruins." Ammons shrugged. "Some say the sisterhood
knows the truth. Some say they don't."
"And what do you say?"
"I say I'll have another drink, if you please." Ammon took a long
swallow, then pointed across the clearing. A small, neat row of tents, their
sides rolled up to let the breeze pass through, lined the outer perimeter of
the ragtag camp. "If you're really interested, you could ask the Sisters,
though fate know what they might tell you."
Kells squinted. White-robed figures sat cross-legged inside the
pavilions. He was certain he recognized a few of them from the day before. In
the last tent he saw the girl in blue, flanked by torches, her head bowed.
"What's her name?"
"Hmmm? You mean the Cloud Walker?' Ammons shrugged. "I have no idea.
They're unnamed until they jump." He rose, and wandered out of the firelight.
"I'm going to find a place to sleep before the morning rain comes. If you're
smart, you'll do the same."
Kells nodded, his attention elsewhere. Cries and hoots echoed through
the jungle as the first light of dawn swept the eastern sky. Thunder rumbled
closer. He stared at the girl in blue, unable to look away. A flash of
lightning lit the square. It threw the tents and tethered rows of slippers
into stark relief. For one blinding moment, Kells saw the girl's eyes open,
her gaze locked on his.
Then, darkness returned, night hiding all.
****
The sky opened in torrents. Rain bled down in long, slanted shafts, the
thunderstorm brief but violent. Sean Kells shifted on his sodden mat as water
dripped off the roof of the hastily built lean-to into his face. He scowled,
unable to find a dry spot. Ammons and the pair of young wranglers snored on,
oblivious to the rivulets streaming across the muddy square. Daylight broke as
the storm waned. Unable to sleep, he pulled on his tall boots and slogged away
from the cluster of tents toward the tree edge to relieve himself.
His head ached. Smoke, lack of sleep and the thousand strange pollens
left his sinuses blocked and stuffy. His boots left long, skidding tracks in
the fresh mud. Suddenly, he stopped, the hair on his neck stiff, the sensation
of eyes on his back too strong to ignore. Slowly, he turned. Dark eyes set in
a broad, triangular head, stared at him from the underbrush. The creature's
tongue flicked nervously, revealing double rows of needle sharp teeth. The
animal resembled the slippers but was smaller, leaner, built for speed. Kells
stared at the strange predator, his heart thudding in his chest.
A stone flashed past his face and struck the creature square in the
forehead. It hissed but skittered back into the shadows. Kells spun around.
The girl in blue stood ten paces to his left, a hood and cape the same
shimmering color as her robe pulled around her thin frame. Startled, he
fumbled for words.
"_Tanis hiy, m'yada._"