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

and Zared. Last week I received word from him to delay a decision until he could
meet with me personally to -"
"And yet he does not wish to speak to me, or to Zaredr "Caelum sits the
Throne of the Stars, Leagh. He has heavier responsibilities than you can
imagine."
Leagh bridled at her brother's school-masterish tone, but held her tongue.
"Caelum knows well that the continued well-being of Tencendor matters
before the wishes of any single person. Leagh, you are a Princess of Tencendor.
As such you enjoy rights and privileges beyond those enjoyed by other
Tencendorians. But these rights and privileges mean you also carry more
responsibility. You simply can not live your life to the dictates of your heart, only
to the dictates of Tencendor. I have tried these past five years to discourage you
from choosing Zared, but you have not listened. Now, perhaps, you will listen to
Caelum."
Both his words and his tone told Leagh everything she needed to know.
Caelum would not assent to the marriage either.
As Askam rose and left the room, Leagh finally gave in to her heartache and
let tears slide down her cheeks. The very worst thing to bear was that she
understood everything that stood in the way of her marriage. Why couldn't she
have accepted the hand of a nobleman from the West? It would be so much
easier, so much more acceptable for the current balance of power. But what she
understood intellectually didn't matter when she'd totally given her heart to
Zared. All she wanted in life was the man she loved.
Far to the north Zared straightened his back, refusing to let weariness slump
his shoulders. He'd spent an entire week clambering over the ruins of Hsingard
with several of his engineers to see if there was any point in trying to rebuild the
town, only to come to the conclusion that the Skraelings had so destroyed the
buildings that all Hsingard could be used for was as a stone quarry. Now he'd
spent ten days riding hard for Severin, and even though he was lean and fit, the
week at Hsingard and the arduous ride home had exhausted him.
But now Severin rose before Zared and, in spite of his tiredness, a small smile
tugged at the corners of his mouth. It was a beautiful town, built not only with
sandstone and red brick to withstand the harsh winters of the north, but also
with skill and imagination, so that the structural strength of each building was
perfectly married with grace of line and beauty of feature. Severin was a town
built to satisfy the spirits as much as it was to harbour the bodies of those who
lived within.
Thank the gods for my parents' foresight, he thought. Rivkah and Magariz
had lived out the final twenty-five years of their lives in the town they'd had
built, and had loved it almost as much as they had loved each other and the son
they'd made between them. His parents had not only laid the foundation stones
of Severin, but also of the territory Zared had inherited from them. The North
had been the most severely ravaged region of Tencendor during the wars
between Axis SunSoar and his brothers Borneheld and Gorgrael. Once it had
crawled with ice, and worse - Ice Worms, Skraelings, and Gryphon. Now fields
ripened and cattle fattened, and any man, woman or child could travel from the
Fortress Ranges to the coast of the Andeis Sea and encounter nothing more
dangerous than the chill of a northern breeze.
Zared pulled his horse in slightly, waiting for his escort to catch up with him.
He was a tall, spare but striking man with his father's dark good looks and his