"Sara Douglass - Redemption 3 - Crusader" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglass Sara)

Nothing else was visible.
Drago's witches waited, each consumed with their own thoughts, or with their dying.

He strode across the ploughed fields, his naked feet barely sinking into the soft earth.
His body was similarly naked, save for the white linen wrap about his hips, and the lily sword and
jewelled purse that hung from his begemmed belt.
The skin of his body glistened slightly with sweat.
DragonStar, the Enemy Reborn.
Behind him walked the Star Stallion, relaxed and sinuous in every movement, his head nodding and
dipping with each stride, the stars sprinkling over the naked earth as they fell from his mane and tail.
From his withers, fixed by magic or perhaps merely by wish, hung the Wolven and the quiver of
blue-feathered arrows.
Behind the horse, but slightly to one side of him, trailed the Alaunt. They loped in single file, each
with head raised just enough that they could keep their golden eyes fixed on the man in front of them.
Their jaws hung very slightly open; enough that the glint of teeth and tongue spun through.
Behind them all trundled the blue-feathered lizard, occasionally snapping at imaginary gnats.

The crystal dome appeared on the horizon, but DragonStar did not increase the rate of his stride, nor
change the expression of his face. He was at peace with himself, even though his mind was consumed
with the image of millions of stars and galaxies tumbling through the universe, chased by a great
dark cloud with the stinging tail of a scorpion raised threateningly behind it.
Thus had Evil subverted every good ever created.
Thus had the Star Dance been chased by the TimeKeeper Demons since the creation of the universe
itself.
Now was the time to end it.
Now. Here. In this time. With this man, this Crusader.
And then ... then ...
… how many aeons had the Star Dance waited? How many worlds, solar systems, galaxies
torn apart had it watched?
... then could the Garden be created anew. And this time, without the scorpion's tail sting of
temptation.
Only the Infinite Field of Flowers gently waving into eternity.

Faraday turned her head slightly, and she seemed to smile, even though her facial muscles did not move.
There, she could smell him.
And then he was behind her, and she could sense the sway of his body and its warmth, and her lips
parted, and she shifted very slightly on the chair in remembrance.
He put his hand on her shoulder, and she relaxed back into his love. He bent swiftly down, and
kissed her full on her mouth.
Leagh, Gwendylyr and Goldman lifted their faces and smiled with pure joy.
"DragonStar!" Leagh said.
He nodded, embracing each one with the warmth of his gaze, then looked at Dare Wing.
The birdman had turned his head in DragonStar's direction and opened his eyes. They were red, and
horribly consumed with the weight of his sickness.
And yet, somehow, they were still glad.
DragonStar slipped past Faraday and entered the circle. He paused, then squatted down by
DareWing's side. "I need you alive," he said.
"Good," croaked Dare Wing.
DragonStar grinned, then leaned down his hand and rested it on the skin of DareWing's chest.
"Do you feel like an adventure?" he said.