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

Four thousand years passed. Tencendor was riven apart by the Seneschal
and then restored by the StarMan, Axis SunSoar. The Icarü and the Avar
returned to the southern lands, and the Star Gods, Axis and Azhure among
them, were free to roam as they willed. Even though WolfStar had managed to
come back through the Star Gate, he vanished once Axis had won his struggle
with Gorgrael. Control of Tencendor, and the Throne of the Stars itself, passed
from Axis to his son and heir, Caelum. Tencendor waxed bright and strong under
the House of the Stars. All was well.



West and North His wing-span as wide as a man was tall,
the speckled blue eagle floated high in the sky above the silvery waters of Grail
Lake. The day was calm and warm, the thermals inviting, but for the moment
the eagle resisted climbing any higher. He tilted his head slightly, his predatory
gaze undimmed by his vast age, taking in the pink and cream stone walls and
the gold- and silver-plated roofs of the city of Carlon. The eagle's gaze was only
casual, for it was almost noon, and the streets so busy that all rodents would
have secreted themselves deep in their lairs many hours previously. The eagle
was not particularly concerned. He had feasted well on fish earlier, and now he
tilted his wings, sweeping over the white-walled seven-sided tower of Spiredore.
The power emanating from the tower vibrated the eagle's wings pleasantly,
and made the old bird reflect momentarily on the changes in this land over his
lifetime. When he had been newly feathered and only just able to stay aloft, he'd
flown over this same lake and tower with the eagle who had fathered him. Then
the tower had been still and silent, and the land treeless. Men had scurried
below, axes in their hands and the Plough God Artor in their hearts. Ice had
invaded from the north and Gryphon - creatures whom even eagles feared - had
darkened the skies. But all that had changed. A great battle had been fought in
the icy tundra far to the north, the ice had retreated and the Gryphon had
disappeared from the thermals. In the west, enchanted forests had reached for
the sky, and the white tower below had reverberated with power and song. The
armies that had crawled about the land in destructive, serpentine trails
disbanded, and now the peoples of this enchanted land - those who called
themselves human, Icarü and Avar - shared their lives shoulder to shoulder in
apparent harmony.
Contented, knowing that the score of chicks he had raised over his lifetime
would have nothing more to fear than the anger of a sudden storm, the eagle
tipped his wings and spiralled higher and higher until he was no more than a
distant speck in the sky.
Leagh stood at the open windows of her apartments in the north wing of the
Prince of the West's palace in Carlon, watching the eagle fade from sight.
Sighing, for watching the bird had calmed the ache in her heart, she dropped her
gaze slightly to the ancient Icarü palace that loomed above the entire city. It
seemed to Leagh that the palace looked lonely and sad in the bright sunshine.
And so it should, she thought, for StarSon Caelum so rarely leaves Sigholt now
that he only uses his palace in Carlon every three or four years.
Leagh did not covet the magnificent Icarü palace. Her older brother Askam's
palace was spacious and elegant, and grand enough for Leagh, who was a
woman of conservative tastes and temperate habits. She dropped her eyes yet