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

He was on a great beast — not a horse, something different -that dipped and soared. It screamed with the voice of. . .
Timozel's eyes flew open and he sat forward, startled. For an instant he could have sworn that he was . . .
"What's wrong?" Jack's quiet voice asked, concerned. Yr and Faraday were too absorbed in each other to notice Timozel.
"Nothing," said Timozel tersely. "Nothing."
Jack stared a moment longer, then sat back, turning his face to the blackness below them. No wonder the Axe-Wielder is unsettled, he thought. This is a stairwell haunted by the memory of strange steps. He tried to rest, wishing that fate had not brought them to this Barrow. Prophecy.
Slowly Timozel leaned back against the wall. He closed his eyes.
He fought for a great Lord, and in the name of that Lord he commanded a mighty army that undulated for leagues in every direction.
Again Timozel's eyes flew open, but this time he kept still. Commanded a great army? He almost chuckled. Commanded a great army? Humph! Not if Axis had his way, he thought sourly. So determined is he not to favour me because he beds my mother I'll be lucky to achieve chief of the horse lines before I'm fifty. Timozel felt a stab of resentment, deeper than he'd ever felt before. He had a poor future in the Axe-Wielders.
He closed his eyes again.
The cold wind blew at his back as hundreds of thousands screamed his name and hurried to fulfil his every wish. Before him another army, his pitiful enemy, lay quavering in terror.

They could not counter his brilliance. Their commander lay abed, unable to summon the courage to meet Timozel in just combat.
This must be a vision from Artor - a reward for taking the holy vows of Championship.
Remarkable victories were his for the taking.
"Yes," Timozel whispered.
In the name of his Lord he would clear Achar of the filth that invaded.
"Yes," he said, louder this time. He revelled in the power he would wield. His fist clenched by his side.
His name would live in legend forever.
"Timozel?" Faraday touched his hand. "Are you all right?"
Timozel hesitated, not wanting to let the vision go, then he opened his eyes and smiled at Faraday. "Yes. Yes, I will be all right."
All will be well.
I will be a powerful Champion, he thought, for people to scream my name thus. He muttered a quick prayer to Artor, thanking him for the vision.
"All will be well," he whispered.
"Let's move," Jack said finally, and they all rose stiffly to their feet. Yr had done her best with Faraday's hair, and now it lay coiled into a neat roll in the nape of her neck, the worst of the tangles and mud removed. Faraday turned to look at Timozel as they started to climb down again, his confident smile reassuring her. She thought she was going to like having her own personal Champion.
Timozel followed the others with new assurance. Artor's vision made him feel older, more purposeful. Harder. Ready to stand and defend Faraday - and Artor himself, if need be - at a moment's notice. A true Champion.
They continued to climb down the stairs, the only relief from complete blackness the dim glow provided by the lamps Yr and Timozel carried. Faraday shivered as she thought what it must have been like for a person to climb down this stairwell in total darkness. But then, perhaps these Enchanter-Talons made their own light.
Eventually they became aware of a faint sound of wind echoing up the stairs around them.
"What's that?" Faraday whispered, and felt Timozel touch her shoulder reassuringly.
"It is the sound of the Star Gate," Yr replied. Her voice was stiff with barely suppressed excitement, and Faraday looked at Timozel, intrigued.
The sound grew louder as they got closer and a faint blue light began to augment that of their lamps. Finally the light was strong enough for Jack to ask Yr to douse her lamp, and after a moments hesitation Timozel did the same. Yr was almost pushing Jack's back in her eagerness to get to the bottom of the stairwell.
"Peace, Yr, we're almost there," grumbled Jack though he was also keenly excited. He had seen the Star Gate on three previous occasions, yet three hundred viewings would never be enough for him.
As they rounded one more bend, the stairs abruptly ended in a long corridor that angled towards an open archway in the distance. Blue light and sound pulsed at them from the far side of the archway. Jack stopped them for a moment, although Yr looked so excited that for a moment Faraday thought she might break and run down the corridor towards the strange blue light. Her heart began to pound, and Timozel pulled her a little closer to his body, thinking she needed reassurance.
"There is no danger as long as you do not step through the Star Gate," Jack said, his eyes keen as they searched those of Faraday and Timozel. "But there are one or two things that I must warn you of. Yr? Do you listen as well?" Yr nodded her head impatiently, her eyes on the distant archway. Jack turned back to Faraday and Timozel. "No human has been down here for almost a thousand years, and in the time of the Icarii rule it was rare indeed that a human was allowed to see the Star Gate. This is one of the most sacred Icarii sites in this land, so treat it with due reverence. The Star Gate is very beautiful, and it will tempt you to step through. You can hear it sing now. But if you do that you will never come back. Do you understand?" Both Faraday and Timozel nodded. "Well then, let us enter the Chamber of the Star Gate."
Timozel gripped Faraday's hand tightly as they followed Jack and Yr. He was a Champion and he would lead great armies; there was no need to fear this blue light.
As soon as they stepped through the archway into the Chamber of the Star Gate, their ears were buffeted by the sound of a gale, although not a breath of wind touched their faces.
Faraday's first impression, after she had adjusted to the sound, was that the chamber was a smaller, if more exquisite, version of the Chamber of the Moons in the palace of Carlon. It was perfectly circular and surrounded by pillars and archways. Each of the pillars was carved from translucent white stone in the shape of a naked, winged man. Most of the men stood with their heads bowed and arms folded across their chests, wings lifted and outstretched so as to touch those of the men next to them, their touching wingtips forming the apex of the archways. Faraday noticed that an entire section of pillars across the far side of the chamber were different. These winged men had their heads up and their eyes wide open, golden orbs staring towards the centre of the chamber, their arms uplifted in joy with their wings. She did not have to count to know that there were twenty-six.
"Faraday," Timozel whispered, and when she turned to look at him he pointed towards the vaulted ceiling of the chamber. Blue shadows leaped and chased each other across the white stone vault. Like demons, Timozel thought.
"Oh!" Faraday gasped, "it's beautiful!"
"It is not there you should be looking, lovely lady, but beneath the shadows," said Jack, standing halfway between the archway they had come through, his extended arm indicating what looked like the low rim of a large circular pool which occupied the centre space of the floor.
Faraday walked towards the pool, dragging a reluctant Timozel with her. She was almost breathless with excitement. A few paces from the pool Timozel baulked; he would go no further. Faraday let Timozel's hand go and walked to the rim, it was about knee height and wide enough to sit on comfortably. Without hesitation or a backward glance, Faraday sat down. Deep blue light pulsed across her face and reflected far above on the stone vault.
Faraday's lips parted and her eyes widened. For a few moments she forgot to breathe. Yr and Jack joined her at the rim, and for long minutes all three stared transfixed into the Star Gate.
The circular pool contained no water; instead, to all intents and purposes, it "contained the universe. The real one, not the faint shadow that lights the night sky. Stars reeled and danced, suns chased each other across galaxies, moons dipped and swayed through planetary systems, luminous comets threaded their mysterious paths through the cosmos. The sound of vast interstellar winds roared out into the chamber and a luminous deep, blue light pulsed through the Star Gate. Its depths stretched into infinity.
Faraday opened her mouth to say something to Jack, sitting next to her, but there were no words to describe what she saw. She started to cry through sheer wonder at the incredible beauty and majesty of the Star Gate. No wonder the Icarii worshipped here and, when they could not be here, worshipped the Star Gate's reflection in the night sky. Artor paled into utter insignificance for Faraday as she battled to come to terms with what she saw. Nothing she had been taught about Artor and the Way of the Plough could compare with this. She envied with every fibre of her being the Enchanter-Talons who had stepped through this Gate. What incredible joy they must have felt as they slid over the rim of the pool and into infinity! Perhaps even now they joined the stars themselves as they danced through the universe. "Ah," she moaned, longing to join them, wondering if she would be good enough for the Gate to accept her. Her hands stretched towards the Star Gate.
Jack's arm slid about her shoulders. "No, sweet one. No, do not be tempted. It is not for you or I to step through this Gate. Only an Icarii Enchanter powerful beyond telling could ever hope to survive."
Faraday dragged her eyes away from the Star Gate and looked at Jack. His cheeks showed the trail of tears as well. "So, it is not only the dead Enchanter-Talons who go through?"
Jack thought carefully before he replied. "No. It is said that one day the Icarii will breed an Enchanter powerful enough to journey through the Gate and manage to come back out again. I do not know what he would find there."
Or what he did find there, he thought. His eyes slipped momentarily to the line of twenty-six statues whose arms were uplifted in joy.
Faraday's eyes had drifted back to the Star Gate and she did not notice Jack's glance. "I do not know why he would ever want to come back out again," she whispered.
"It is good that you have seen this," Jack said quietly. "It will help you through the next years of your life. Remember it always."
"Always," Faraday echoed fiercely, and then Jack was pulling her back from the brink and handing her to Timozel who still refused to look into the Gate. "Keep her back, now, lad," Jack said, and Timozel nodded, annoyed at being called lad, but pleased that Jack had entrusted Faraday to his care.