"Douglass, Sara - Wayfarer Redemption 2 - Pilgrim" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglass Sara)

And Zenith smiled, and dreamed on.
A hand touched her shoulder, and Zenith awoke with a start.
It was Faraday, looking well and rested.
"Faraday?" Zenith said. "How are you? Is Drago still in the cart? What happened at —"
"Shush," Faraday said, and sat down beside Zenith. "I have slept the night through, and Drago still sleeps. Now," she took a deep breath, and her body tensed, "let me tell you what happened in the Chamber of the Star Gate."
Zenith sat quietly, listening to the horror of the emergence of the children — but children no longer, more like birds — and of StarLaughter and the undead child she carried, and then of the appalling evil of the Demons.
"Oh, Zenith," Faraday said in a voice barely above a whisper. "They were more than dreadful. Anyone caught outside of shelter during the times when they hunt will suffer an appalling death — and a worse life if they are spared death."
She stopped, and took Zenith's hand, unable to look her in the face.
"Zenith, the Demons destroyed the Star Gate."
Zenith stared at Faraday, for a moment unable to comprehend the enormity of what she'd just heard.
"Destroyed the Star Gate?" she repeated, frowning. "But they can't. I mean ... that would mean ..."
Zenith trailed off. If the Star Gate was destroyed that would mean the sound of the Star Dance would never filter through Tencendor, even if the TimeKeeper Demons could be stopped.
"No," Zenith said. "I cannot believe that. The Star Gate can't be destroyed. It can't. It can'tl"
Faraday was weeping now. "I'm sorry, Zenith. I..."
Zenith grabbed at her, hugging her tight, and now both wept. Although Zenith had known that the approach of the Demons meant that the Star Dance would be blocked, she had not even imagined that the Demons would actually destroy the Star Gate on their way through.
There was not even a hope for the Dance to ever resume.
"Our entire lives without the Dance?" Zenith whispered. "Even if we can best these Demons, we will never again have the Star Dance?"
Faraday wiped her eyes and sat up straight. "I don't know, Zenith. I just don't."
"Faraday ... did you see StarDrifter at the Star Gate?"
"No. I am sorry, Zenith. I don't know where he is ... but I am sure he is safe."
"Oh." Zenith's face went expressionless for a moment. "And the Sceptre?" she finally said.
"That, at least, is safe." Faraday looked back to the cart. "But transformed, as is everything that comes through the Star Gate. Come. It is time to wake Drago up. There are some clothes for him in the box under the seat of the cart, and we all need to eat."
"And then?"
"Then we go find Zared, make sure he is well."
"And then?"
Faraday smiled, and stood, holding out her hand for Zenith. "And then we begin to search for a hope. Come."
22

Despair and then, as night settled upon the land, terror swept over Tencendor, but it left him unscathed. He was lost in his dreams, and the Demons could not touch him. He shuffled from leg to leg, trying to ease his arthritic weight, but none of it helped. He wished death would come back and take him once more.
His head drooped. He'd thought to have escaped both the sadnesses of life and the crippling pains of the body. If he hoped hard enough, would death come back?
• 23 «
What To Do?
The might of Tencendor's once proud army now stood in groups of five or six under the trees of the northern Silent Woman Woods, eyes shifting nervously. Some members of the Icarii Strike Force preferred to huddle in the lower branches of the trees, as if that way they could be slightly closer to the stars they had lost contact with. Thirty thousand men and Icarii adrift in a world they no longer understood.
Their leader, StarSon Caelum, walked slowly about, the fingers of one hand rubbing at his chin and cheek, his eyes sliding away from the fear in his men's faces, thinking that now he knew how Drago must have felt when his Icarii powers had been quashed.
There was nothing left. No Star Dance. No enchantment. Nothing. Just an emptiness. And a sense of uselessness so profound that Caelum thought he would go mad if he had to live beyond a day with it.
"Faraday said she would join us here," Zared said, watching Caelum pace to and fro. He sat on a log, his hands dangling down between his knees, his face impassive.
"And you think she can help us against this .. . this ...?" Caelum drifted to a halt, not sure quite what to call this calamity that had enveloped them.
"Can your
24
Caelum spun about on his heel and walked a few paces away.
"We can do little, Caelum, until we hear from Faraday."
"Or my parents."
"Or your parents," Zared agreed. He paused, watching Caelum pace about. He did not care for the loss that Caelum — and every other Enchanter — had suffered. They relied so deeply on their powers and their beloved Star Dance, that Zared did not know if they could continue to function effectively without it. Caelum was StarSon, the man who must pull them through this crisis — but could he do it if he was essentially not the same man he had been a few weeks ago? How could anyone who had previously relied on the Star Dance remain effective?
Maybe Axis. Axis had been BattleAxe, and a good BattleAxe, for years before he'd known anything about the Star Dance.
And yet hadn't Axis said that even when he'd thought himself human, mortal, he'd still subconsciously drawn on the Star Dance? Still used its power and aid?
Well, time would tell if Icarii blood was worth anything without the music of the Star Dance.
At the moment, Zared had his doubts. He would gladly trade Tencendor's entire stock of useless Enchanters and SunSoars for the hope Faraday offered.
Suddenly sick of watching Caelum pacing uselessly to and fro, Zared stood and walked over to where Herme, Theod, Dare Wing FullHeart and Leagh were engaged in a lacklustre game of ghemt.
Leagh looked up and smiled for him as he approached, and Zared squatted down by her, a hand on her shoulder.
"How goes it, Leagh?"