"Wilder, Cherry - Torin 01 - The Luck of Brin's Five UC - part 01" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilder Cherry)

rise outside the western gate, it was downhill all the way.
The sled was light because Odd-Eye was nothing but skin
and bone. I trudged through the snow numb with anxiety
as much as cold. This journey was like stepping off the edge
of the world; I felt that the worst was about to happen, that
I was hard up against the cruelty of life and could do
nothing to change it.
I had a hard time hoisting the sled to our comfortable
place under the burned tree. Then I checked to see if
Odd-Eye was alive; his odd eyes blinked at me. I went
down and warmed my hands and feet at the lake, then I
came back to sit on the rock and eat my graynuts. There
was no snow falling, and the winds were still. We saw Esto,
the Great Sun, go down, a smear of orange in the distant
west; it was the time of "runar", the little darkness before

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the rising of the Far Sun. Trails of phosphorescence sprang
up on the lake's surface and overhead the stars blazed. I was
dozing when Odd-Eye gave a thin cry.
"Glider!"
"What is it?" I was frightened, sure that he was dying,
that his mind was wandering again.
"A glider!" He was straining against the thongs that
bound him to the sled. His voice was so weak that I had to
put my ear close to his lips.
"Look, Dorn . . . coming down over the lake .
I stared and saw what he meant, but it was no glider. It
was more like a falling star, then blazing closer, like a
fireball or meteor. I thought, in fact I hoped, that it would
fall short, a long way from us, behind the peaks on the far
bank of the lake. But Odd-Eye was whispering in my ear,
and the fireball came closer, "A glider! A balloon! It will
strike in the lake and your Luck is there, I know it! A great
Luck is there!"
The light from the fireball grew from white to orange to
pinkish red; I was terrified now, for I could see that it
would not fall short. I wassure it would crush us, right
there under the burned tree. It came on and on, and I could
not look away until it fell hissing and burning into the lake
near the far bank. Then I saw two other things: a hunting
party on that bank, near the dark peaks-city dwellers with
banners and lances-and in the upper air floating towards
our side, two little white tents on strings wafting down