"Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - StarShield Book 1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weis Margaret)

Chapter 1: Cascade
Merinda Neskat stepped carefully about the slick rocks, the cool mists swirling about her cheeks
in the evening. It was wet, to be sure, and soon she knew that her hair would be heavy with the mists,
her thick curls struggling to maintain their shape against the clinging dew. Her clothing was already
soaking through тАФ the promise of a cool later when she returned to the dryer climates higher up. But
for now, with the air nearly as wet as she was and dancing around her in gray forms, she was content
with the feeling of the water on her bare arms and legs. тАЬImmodest,тАЭ she could hear the Dex Libris, her
most immediate superior intone in that sepulcher voice that was her hallmark. тАЬAn Atis Librae of the
Omnet should command more respect in her demeanor. How do you hope to get off the rock and make
a career for yourself if you do not respect yourself enough to allow others to respect you.тАЭ
Merinda choked off the giggle that the thought elicited and stood suddenly erect. тАЬYes, Libris
Gildesh,тАЭ she said in her most mocking serious tone, тАЬI shall uphold the honor of the Omnet even in my
sleep.тАЭ The truth was that she was serious тАФ far too serious for many of those who worked around her.
Merinda believed that she was saving the universe, in her own way and in her own small part. She
openly disdained the others around her who did not understand the importance of тАШrecovering the past,
preserving the present and protecting the futureтАЩ as the slogan of her order maintained. She rarely
socialized at least as far as most of her coworkers were concerned. But, as Merinda reminded herself,
she didnтАЩt need to. She nearly caught herself giggling again at the thought, kicked a curtain of water
into the air before her with her bare feet, and once more began picking her way around the rocks.
She loved it here. Her own home world was wet like this though not nearly so constantly warm.
That planet that had been the first place she knew had seasons тАФ a concept which the local inhabitants
found droll at best and frighteningly incomprehensible at worst. The warmth of the mists pounding
through the air over the surging water of the rocks was filled with life and comfort; a safe haven from
the doldrums of her other existence. The monastery was cold despite the heat, cold in a way that no sun
could ever change. It was an austere place and some thought that it suited her тАФ but then, they didnтАЩt
really know her did they?
The outcropping of rock was coming to an end with a great pillar of stone jutting from the
frothing water. With practiced ease, Merinda reached up for the hand hold. A momentтАЩs breath. A kick
of her shining legs in the filtered light and she swung around the stone to its far side.
Merinda caught her breath, daring not to breath. The sight always struck the wind from her, as
her mother used to say, a vision of surpassing beauty and wonder. It had taken her nearly an hour to
walk the path to this spot yet the time spent and the exertions of the way vanished in the moment.
The Denali Falls of Brishan V were once a religious secret held to be a vision which only the

┬й Copyright 1997 by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman / All Rights Reserved. Page 7
local priests could full understand or appreciate. The waters gathered their strength from the high
mountains of the Krevish mountain range, a place where the ancient gods of this world were held to
have lived under blankets of the sky. The tears of the goddess Rhishan, weeping at the death of her
three boys at the hands of their cruel uncle Umbleh, were said to be the source of the three rivers that
converged at the top of Denali canyon and formed the great falls that cascaded with a deafening thun-
der nearly a thousand feet into the pool at its feet. Yet the beauty of the falls was not found merely in the
beauty of its height nor in the ancient monastery whose buttresses arched magnificently over the
confluence of all three of the rivers. The falls were made special by the Klenith vines that threatened to
choke the waters at the fallтАЩs crest. The twisting vines were hollow, their nature allowing the water
itself to flow through their tubing. The effect was doubly beneficial. The hollow conduits of the Klenith
vines filtered the water for sustenance, thus purifying it as it fell through its tangled shape and, better
still, its twisting forms wove the pure water into braids of shimmering elegance in itтАЩs cascade. Merinda
had, as always, timed her arrival well, for the sun DтАЩrak was settling for the night at the edge of the
plains far below. Quite suddenly, it seemed, MerindaтАЩs world became suffused with salmon-colored
light as the cascades and mists at the base of the falls were suffused with the twilight glow at the end of