"Lawrence Watt-Evans - Dragon Weather" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watt-Evans Lawrence)

Arlian stared as well; still on the ladder, his waist
level with the pantry floor, his vision was limited to
what he could see by peering around his
grandfatherтАЩs legs and out through the door to the
kitchen. He could see a corner of the kitchen table,
a burning fragment of wall, and a wedge of gray
skyтАФand framed in that wedge he saw the dragon.
 He could not judge its size accurately, but he
knew it was huge. It hung there, flapping its
tremendous wings, and Arlian knew that that
flapping was what had caused the whirlwinds that
had swept through the cellars.
It looked black against the sky, but Arlian could
not be sure that was its true color. Its eyes were the
color of flame, but perhaps they merely reflected the
blazing village.
Its wings swept up in a graceful, gigantic curve,
then snapped down, then swept upward again, and
between them hung a body as long and lithe as a
snake, tail whipping and winding below. Its long
neck arched elegantly, and it seemed to be staring
right at Arlian.
тАЬOh,тАЭ Arlian breathed. The dragon was
simultaneously the most beautiful and the most
terrifying thing he had ever seen.
Then it turned and soared away, moving through
the sky as smoothly and effortlessly as a fish moves
through water.
тАЬItтАЩs gone,тАЭ Arlian said.
His grandfather took a cautious step forward,
and Arlian hoisted himself up off the ladder,
stepping through the doorway into the pantry.
Then they both froze as the second dragon
appeared.
This one did not look their way, but simply flew
across their field of vision, left to right and angling
upward. Its scaled flank caught a gleam of sunlight
and shone a dark, rich green, though the rest of it
seemed as black as the other.
It was definitely not the same dragon, however.
The proportions were differentтАФand the face, even
when seen only from the side, was different.
Arlian was startled at how readily he could know
that. The dragons, he discovered, had faces as
distinctive and as instantly recognizable as people.
Why or how it could be so he did not know, but he
knew it was.
тАЬTwo of them,тАЭ Grandsir saidтАФhe, too, had seen
immediately that the two were not the same
creature. тАЬTwo dragons!тАЭ