"Nancy Varian Berberick - Dalamar the Dark" - читать интересную книгу автора (Varian Nancy)

Inside the Hall, Ladonna came forward, her beautiful face shining in the eerie
light, her silver hair glittering with jewels, her fingers with rings. One
step she took, her black velvet robe moving like shadows, and she took it
smiling. "You have done well, after all, Dalamar Nightson."
After all. Dalamar allowed her a lean smile. "Did you doubt me, my lady?"
She did not return his smile. "Strength and will. These are always to be
questioned in everyone."
Dalamar inclined his head to agree. "And so, I have passed your test."
Justarius raised an eyebrow, the expression clearly speaking his surprise at
the temerity of this fledgling mage. "You are bold, young mage. Perhaps
over-bold."
"I am bold, my lord, in proportion to my need." Dalamar swept the three with
one swift glance. "Is that not what you need, a bold mage who is not afraid to
risk what he has in order to get what he wants? Or what you want?"
Justarius's eyes flashed at the impudence. "What can you possibly know
about-?"
Ladonna raised a hand. The rings sparkling on her fingers lit a simple,
calming gesture. Justarius subsided, but the color of his anger still showed
in his face.
"My lady," Dalamar said, stepping toward Ladonna, "I have done all you asked.
A life you valued was lost in the doing, but what is one against many?" He
looked around the chamber at the three gathered. "My part in the matter is
finished. How else may I serve you?"
Ladonna's smile did not reach her eyes when she said, "We will see what you
can do, but first tell me this, Dalamar Nightson: What do you know about the
Tower of High Sorcery at Palanthas?"
Dalamar's pulse quickened at seeing what flickered in the eyes of Par-Salian,
of Justarius, and even of Ladonna herself, though she strove to hide it. Fear.
Fear swiftly hidden, but fear nonetheless.
"I have heard what everyone has," he said softly, "that the Tower has been
long shut up and lately opened." He inclined his head to one and all. "And I
have heard what only a few know-that he who holds it forbids you or anyone
entrance to that Tower."
White robes rustling like the voices of ghosts, Par-Salian leaned forward.
Seeing him, Dalamar had the same feeling he always had when looking upon a
human whose count of years was not so many as his own and who yet looked like
an elf of three hundred years or more. How swiftly their candles burn!
"You have heard rightly in much of what you say," Par-Salian murmured. "He is
a powerful mage, this one who took the Tower. His like has not been seen in
many long years, perhaps in centuries. But you are wrong, young Dalamar, if
you think he forbids the Tower to everyone. He does not."
Par-Salian smiled, a small rugging at the corners of his mouth. That smile did
not warm, and Dalamar braced to deny the three mages sight of him shuddering.
White as alabaster, so he'd thought Par-Salian. Now he thought the man was
white as ice-that cold were his eyes. With a gesture, the Master of the Tower
took in the two standing beside him.
"You see here before you three of the most powerful mages in Krynn, but the
mage who sits in the Tower of Palanthas is stronger than any one of us, and he
will become stronger still." His expression grew hard. His face seemed made of
stone. "He calls himself the Master of Past and Present, and we wonder what