"Douglass, Sara - Axis Trilogy 1 - Battleaxe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglass Sara)

"Why?" Axis interrupted. "Why would he want to do that?"
Ogden shrugged. "He simply hates, Axis. That is enough."
Axis nodded. He understood.
"Gorgrael will try everything in his power to drive uncertainty and fear into the hearts of those who oppose him, Axis. If it means invading your dreams to do so, then Gorgrael is perfectly capable of doing that."
There was a long pause. Ogden and Veremund both knew what Axis would ask next.
"What did I sing, Brothers? What did I sing out there?" His voice was barely above a whisper.
"Axis, you sang an ancient ward — "
"Sorcery!" Axis broke in, his voice horrified. Axis had absorbed the Seneschal's fear and hatred of things magical at an early age.
"No, no," Veremund hastened. "Although some might consider it an enchantment, it is simply a ward against evil. No-one can sing it, ward themselves against evil, unless it has been taught to them in the womb. Axis, your father sang that to you. He loved you so much that he gave you the gift of that song."
Axis passed a trembling hand across his eyes, turning his head slightly away from the two Brothers. Veremund caught a glint of tears. "Never doubt that you were loved and wanted, Axis. If your father has never claimed you then it is because circumstances greater than his love for you have kept him away."
Axis nodded his head curtly, acknowledging Veremund's words. Finally he looked back at Ogden and Veremund. Tears trailed down his cheeks despite his best efforts to hold them back. "Who was my father? What was my father?" he whispered.
Both of the older men rose and moved quietly around the fire, sitting either side of Axis. Veremund laid his hand on Axis' shoulder, but it was Ogden who spoke. "Axis, neither of us know exactly who he was." Neither felt the time was right to tell Axis that his father was almost certainly an Icarii Enchanter. "But if you find him then a great many questions will be answered."
"Ogden, when I read that Prophecy from the book in the Keep, I felt as though a dark, deep dungeon that had been locked all my life had been thrown open and flooded with light. Ogden," he looked Ogden deep in the eye, "I am not sure that I like what I can now see in O that unlocked chamber. I am starting to \vonder if it might have been better had it remained locked the rest of my life."
Axis held Ogden's eyes for a moment longer, then he shrugged off Veremund's hand and stood up with the same fluid grace with which he had sat down. "Brothers, sleep well tonight, for tomorrow we ride for Arcen, where we will reprovision, then ride for Smyrton with full haste. I will not let Gorgrael deflect me from riding north." He paused. "I will send riders with the injured back to Tare and then to Carlon with news of what has happened here this day." His voice hardened. "And to that purpose I must now write to the Lady of Tare telling her that her beloved eldest son is dead under a mountain of mud and rock. Would that I could tell her myself rather than entrust such news to a messenger."
The Star Gate "We are in the tomb of the ninth of twenty-six Icarii Talons to be buried here, Timozel," said Jack.
Faraday and Timozel looked about them. Although obviously built by skilled masons, for the tomb of a King it seemed remarkably bare. Apart from the central stone block there was nothing else in the chamber. The four stone walls, relieved from outright starkness by false pillars, showed no sign of any opening.
"How do we get out?" asked Faraday.
Yr turned to Jack. "Jack, you know this place better than any of us. Do you know the way below?"
Jack turned to the stone block and laid a reverential hand upon it. "These Barrows were built for only twenty six of the Icarii Talons, Kings over all Tencendor. The Talons ruled Tencendor for over five thousand years, yet only twenty-six were laid to rest here. Thirty-one lie in more mundane surroundings."
Timozel stirred restlessly, but Jack raised his hand. "Be still, lad. You must know this. Only twenty-six. Under half the total number of Talons. The twenty-six who were not only Talons, but also of the line of Enchanters. These Barrows are very enchanted places."
"Enchanters?" Timozel's voice was stiff. "What do you mean?"
Jack looked at the boy. "Those of the Icarii who could cast enchantments, Timozel."
Timozel's eyes widened and he invoked the sign of the Plough against evil, shifting back a little towards the wall of the tomb. He did not like this talk of Enchanters and enchanted places.
Faraday moved to stand beside Jack at the stone block. "Is the Talon entombed beneath this block?" she asked, about to rest her hand on the stone, but thinking better of it.
"No." Jack paused, reflecting. "The Enchanter-Talon was laid out on this block when he died. But he has long since gone. And where he has gone, so must we."
"The Star Gate." Yr took a deep breath. "I have never seen it — but I yearn to. I have heard so much...so much."
Jack nodded. "Only I among the Sentinels has laid eyes on the Star Gate. And no-one for the past thousand years has walked the paths of the StarFarers down to the Star Gate."
"Why do you call them StarFarers, Jack?" said Faraday.
"It is what the most powerful of the Icarii Enchanter-Talons were known as, although all Enchanters bear the word 'star' somewhere in their name. They honour the stars and the movements of the heavens. Much of their magic comes from the stars, or so it is said."
All this talk of magic was making Timozel uneasy. "Enough of that. Where are you taking us? What is this Star Gate?"
Jack hid his annoyance behind a bland smile. "What it is concerns you not, Timozel. If I thought I could get us out of here without passing by the Star Gate then surely would. But all paths lead down to the Star Gate, and to find another path to the surface we will have to walk past the Star Gate."
"Is it dangerous?" Faraday asked.
Yr laughed. "Not unless you walk through, sweet child." She paused and regarded Jack a moment. "Jack has not explained well enough, I think. These Barrows are not actually tombs, for they hold not the bodies of the Enchanter-Talons. Each Barrow is instead an entrance-way. A gate before the real gate, if you like. Whenever one of the twenty-six died their people would build for them a Barrow, with this chamber below it. Below the chamber they built a long stairwell that leads to the Star Gate. When the Barrow, chamber and stairwell were completely built, the body of the Enchanter-Talon was laid upon the stone block and the Barrow sealed. Once sealed in his tomb the Enchanter-Talon would eventually make his way down the stairwell into the Chamber of the Star Gate and walk through. Each had his own entrance to the Star Gate — thus twenty-six Barrows for twenty-six Enchanter-Talons. Twenty-six gates to the Star Gate. Once through the Star Gate, it is said the Enchanter-Talons wait."
"Wait for what?" Faraday's eyes were wide. She had not believed that anything the Forbidden did could be so hauntingly beautiful. Despite her devout upbringing, Faraday was rapidly losing her uneasiness with talk of things magical. This talk of the StarFarers and the Star Gate fascinated her.
Yr shrugged. "Who knows, darling girl? They wait for whatever concerns them."
Timozel didn't like the sound of this. How could these Enchanter-Talons make their way down a flight of stairs when they were dead? No wonder the Seneschal taught that magic was evil. Yr stepped over to him, resting a hand lightly on his shoulder and leaning close. "Who knows how these dead Enchanter-Talons made their way down, Timozel. I confess that it is the living who concern me." She rubbed her other hand gently against his chest and leaned against his body.
Timozel's face hardened and he seized her hand, lifting it off his chest. Did she seek to enchant him with her charms? Yr shrugged and stepped back, clutching the cloak closed where it had gaped open. There would be time enough later.
"Enough," Jack said mildly. "It is time to descend. We have no food or water. The quicker we move through the quicker we can find something to eat."
Jack picked up his heavy staff and hefted it in his left hand, running his right hand gently over the metal knob at its apex. Faraday looked closely at the metal knob for the first time. It had deep lines etched into it, whirling in complicated patterns across the knob that was about the size of a man's clenched fist. The metal looked strange, blackened, tarnished almost. Then her attention was diverted from the knob to Jack. He was talking to the staff, very quietly so that his actual words could not be heard, but with a beautiful cadence underpinning his words. He almost seemed to be singing to it. Faint emerald light pulsed from his fingertips in rhythm with his voice. Yr stepped up softly behind Faraday. "Step back this way, Faraday," she whispered. "You must not get in the way."
Yr and Faraday joined Timozel by the far wall. He was staring at Jack, his eyes dark with suspicion, his hand resting lightly on the hilt of his sword.
Suddenly Jack seized the staff in both hands, whirled it at shoulder height three times around his body, then thrust the metal tip against a spot in the floor.
"Ecrez dontai StarFarerl" he cried, and instantly a large section of the stonework underfoot dropped several handspans and slid underneath the rest of the floor. Stone steps spiralled out of sight into the blackness below.
"I arn impressed, Jack," Yr said very quietly. "You seemed to have learned well during your long wait for the StarMan." Jack raised his head from his contemplation of the steps. His jewel-like eyes were faintly satisfied. He nodded in acknowledgement of her compliment.
"Let us go. Timozel, you will bring up the rear with one of the lamps. I will lead with the other. Yr and Faraday can come between us. The climb is long, I fear. Please be careful, the steps can sometimes be uneven."
They had to climb slowly. The stairs were steep and, as Jack had cautioned, uneven in places as the stairwell wound down deep into the earth in tight spirals. Jack, Yr and Faraday had to carefully hold their cloaks out of the way lest they trip over their trailing hems, and Jack gave the lamp to Yr so that he could manage both his cloak and the heavy staff.
Faraday concentrated hard to avoid falling. The steps seemed to spiral down into infinity, and she lost all track of time. Her calves and knees ached after only a few minutes and, as they descended further, the ache intensified into a burning sensation. She was so lost in contemplation of her pain that she bumped heavily into Yr when she stopped in front of her. "Pay attention!" Yr snapped. "Jack has called a rest." Faraday mumbled an apology and sat down to massage her aching calves. "How much further, Jack?"
"We're about halfway down," Jack said. Faraday was glad to see that both he and Yr were also massaging their legs. Magical creatures they might be, but it didn't stop their muscles from complaining. Timozel was stoically pretending that his own legs didn't ache.
Yr began to comb out Faraday's wet and tangled hair with her fingers. Faraday smiled and closed her eyes. She would give two years of her life for a warm bath, she thought vaguely, lulled into tranquillity by the touch of Yr's hands.
As Faraday's eyes closed Timozel surreptitiously stretched his legs across the width of the stairwell, his face grimacing with relief as the ache began to abate. He sighed and settled his shoulders comfortably against the stone wall.
For a while he watched Yr comb Faraday's hair, then his eyes, like Faraday's, slowly closed.