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

winds amongst the Peaks.
StarLaughter knew many of Talon Spike's secrets, and although she'd known the mountain had
crumpled when Qeteb sent his destruction rippling over the land, she hoped that the one secret she
needed to hide from the Demon had remained safe and intact.
And so it had.
The cellars and basements of Talon Spike — StarLaughter was unaware that Axis and Azhure had
renamed the mountain Star Finger — were places of great enchantment. StarLaughter did not know
the details, but she did know that the basements of Talon Spike were protected by wards to
deflect the power of enemies who sought those Icarii who sheltered within.
If the enchantments still existed, they would protect her — StarLaughter hoped — from the
Demons' power. Oh, the Demons would surely hunt for her, but they would not do it themselves. The
Demons were obsessed with the hunt for the StarSon, and so Qeteb would set the Hawkchilds to
StarLaughter's discovery.
And that suited StarLaughter's logically-maddened plan perfectly.
They'd emerged from Spiredore's blue tunnel at the northern foot of Talon Spike. Of the mountain, only
the lower third remained: the top portions lay over nearby peaks and in valleys in great, black, jagged
boulders. StarLaughter looked about the area where she stood; it was pebbly, slick with ice and
crisscrossed with cracks and chasms, but it was navigable nevertheless. Here had once wound a great
glacier, but that had exploded into billions of deadly ice shards during Qeteb's rape of the land, and the
shards had dispersed over the entire Alps.
Now, the hidden tunnels into the mountain's basements were revealed.
StarLaughter grinned, and dragged WolfStar towards the entrance to a tunnel slightly to the east.
After three steps, WolfStar finally managed to wrench himself free with a mighty effort.
"You cold-souled bitchl" he cried, his breath frosting in the air. "What are you doing now?"
"Trying to save your life," she said, leaning down to grab him once again. "You'll thank me for it soon
enough."
WolfStar laughed, hard and bitter. "And doubtless you also work to save Tencendor from the
Demons."
"There are better things for us to save than the damned land." Don't you hear our son screaming
for us to save him? Don't you hear him, WolfStar?
"You were ever the traitor, StarLaughter. That is the one thing you cannot betray."
She straightened, and stared at him. Her face was inscrutable. "We loved each other once."
"It was a lie. We never loved each other. We only used each other."
She refused to hear his words. "We can love each other again."
"Have you gone mad!" WolfStar rolled over a little, laughing at his unintentional joke, and managed
to get to his feet.
"Good," StarLaughter said. "You can walk. Now I won't have to drag you."
"I can walk away from you, you treacherous whore," WolfStar whispered, and he gave a
sudden, great lurch to the edge of a chasm.
"No!" StarLaughter screamed, and lunged for him, but it was too late.

"You'll never get your claws into my soul again," WolfStar said, and stepped off the edge.
 StarLaughter dropped to her knees, her wings rising behind her. Surely she could haul him out!
But the gap was too narrow. WolfStar had fallen into a chasm less than two arm-spans
wide, and while it was wide enough to gobble him up, it was not wide enough to give
StarLaughter room to manoeuvre her wings in order to effect a rescue.
The chasm dropped to unknowable depths, black rock slicked with ice, and there was no sign of
WolfStar save for a smear of blood on a rock some two paces down.
StarLaughter stared, and then laughed, sending it ringing down the chasm. "You might think to
escape me, or think to fool me into believing you dead, WolfStar," she shouted, "but your efforts are