"Sara Douglass - Redemption 1 - Sinner" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglass Sara)

SpikeFeather walking slowly about the shoreline of the lake, apparently deep in
thought.
Caelum sighed and turned back into the circular map-room. The centre table
was covered with documents, piles of accounts, reports from several of the
major towns, and ledgers bound with ribbon and stuffed with loose pages.
Caelum fought the urge to sigh again and wandered slowly over to the table,
running a hand through his thick, close-cropped black curly hair. Was there
never an end to the paperwork? Sigholt sometimes seemed full of secretaries
and notaries and bureaucrats, all of them there supposedly to keep track of the
vast amount of paperwork that governing Tencendor somehow generated, but
Caelum sometimes wondered if they were of any use - his desk never seemed to
clear of the damned stuff.
No wonder Axis had handed control of Tencendor over to him! Caelum smiled
softly, thinking of his parents, and knowing in his heart that it was far more than
paperwork that had seen them leave. Axis and Azhure had remained at Sigholt
while their children grew into adulthood, but when Zenith, their youngest, had
reached the age of twenty-five, they had increasingly turned to their fellow Star
Gods for companionship. Nine years ago, growing ever more inclined to the
ethereal and wanting to spend more time exploring the mysteries of the stars,
Axis had handed over full control of Tencendor to Caelum in a magnificent
ceremony on the shores of Grail Lake, where Axis had proclaimed Tencendor so
many years ago. In the years since then Caelum had seen his parents only three
or four times. They kept themselves remote, as befitted their status as gods, and
left Caelum to manage the realm of mortals.
 Even though he had steered Tencendor for nine years, and seen it
successfully through several peaceful disputes, Caelum still felt slightly
uncomfortable about his position as supreme ruler. Axis had won his right to rule
through sheer courage, through years spent on the fighting trail, through
heartache and loss and grief. Caelum had been given the realm, almost literally,
on a golden platter. Oh, he'd been trained and guided and counselled for years
beforehand. Axis had sent him for several six-month periods to the great
southern empire of Coroleas, and once for seven months to the intriguing little
kingdom of Escator. At the hands, not only of Axis himself, but other petty kings
and grand emperors, Caelum had studied the art of governance in depth.
But still Caelum sometimes felt that he should have won his right to sit the
Throne of the Stars as his father had. Was the sheer luck of birth order enough
to guarantee that a son had the skills and wisdom needed to govern so large a
realm? What did his people actually think of him?
"I should get out more often," Caelum said to himself. "Actually see what's
going on and not rely on reports. How long is it since I've left Sigholt?"
"Too long," a soft voice put in from the window, and Caelum turned about,
unsurprised. He'd known who it was even before she spoke, for he'd felt her
presence coalesce in the window as he'd muttered to himself.
"Zenith." He grinned and held out his hands. "It's been days! Where have
you been?"
His youngest sister jumped lightly down from the windowsill and hugged her
brother tight. Unlike Caelum, who remained bare-backed like their parents,
Zenith had glossy wings, as raven-black as her hair. She was a beautiful
birdwoman, even more stunning than her mother, Azhure. Mysterious, intriguing,
and yet somehow sad, always apart from the life of Sigholt. Caelum held the