"Briggs, Patricia - Sianim 3 - When Demons Walk" - читать интересную книгу автора (Briggs Patricia)

When the western docks had been in use, the giant bell on the cliffs rang out as the waters began to
recede, and the few ships that had chosen to race the tide would unfurl their sails and their masters would
hope that they hadn’t waited too long and stranded themselves on the land where they would be
destroyed by the abnormally swift, crushing waves of the ocean that reclaimed the empty bay within
moments of the turning tide.

Some claimed it was magic that caused the drastic tides that depleted a bay almost four fathoms
deep, but the Old Man had explained it differently. Something about the converging of deep sea currents
and the great sea wall that protected this bay of Landsend, as she recalled.

It had been a long time since the bell had been rung, as the Cybellian overlords preferred the shoaly
bay on the eastern side of the peninsula upon which Landsend was built. They were uncomfortable with
the dangers of the Spirit Tide, and Purgatory, once a small blight in the center of the city, had quickly
spread its leprous mantle to encompass the abandoned western docks. Several years earlier the heavy
bell had fallen from its mounting and landed in the sea to be swallowed by the shifting ocean sands, but
the frame on which it had hung was still standing.

Near the docks, higher cliff peaks rose in the air, looking far larger than they did during normal tides.
Sham made her way through the rocks of the cliffs, finally lying down on her belly to reach the undercut
ledge below.

From the ledge, safely hidden from view, hung a rotted ladder that owed its continued existence more
to her magic than any integrity left in the wood and rope. She used the ladder to climb most of the way
down the slime-coated cliffs. At the last rung she hung by her arms and dropped two body-lengths to the
soft sands below.

Warily she scanned the beaches for the predators that sometimes hunted here, though it was dark
enough in the shadow of the cliffs that she wouldn’t be able to see anything until it was upon her anyway.
She had never discovered anything hunting here herself, but she’d come upon places where something
had died often enough that she remained cautious.

Pulling the shadows more tightly around her, she found the entrance to the cave system that riddled
the ancient limestone cliffs, carved by the countless years of water pounding at the wall.

* * *

 “what is this?” she asked, stretching to place her fingers on the edges of the runes that marked one
of the openings.

Maur, his chestnut hair tinged with grey at his temples, smiled down at her. “Wards, child. To keep
people out.”

She thought about it for a moment. “They’re not complete, are they?”

Pleased, the mage crouched beside her.

“How would you finish them?”

She frowned at the patterns before her and traced a rune below the last one, As she finished, magic