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

Evilly curious and perpetually hungry creatures that they were ...
The grey wraiths were moving slowly through the snow, perhaps about a dozen of them, and
concentrating so hard on their journey they had not yet noticed the Strike Force.
DareWing motioned one Wing after him, then very gradually began a downward spiral that would
eventually bring him to the Skraelings' backs.
As he drifted lower, DareWing stifled another exclamation. A small rabbit was bounding
through the snow before the Skraelings; one of its ears was missing, and its fur looked as though it
was streaked with pus.
One of Qeteb's creatures, then.
The Skraelings are in league with Qeteb! And that thought did not surprise DareWing overmuch,
either, for the Skraelings had ever sought someone to lead them in their perpetual quest for misery.
Well, this was one group that would never make it as far as the Maze.
Again DareWing motioned with his hand, and the Wing behind him lifted silvery bows from
their back, and filled them with arrows fletched in feathers the same colour as their individual
wings.
Dare Wing's hand dropped, and the arrows flew.
Most found their mark, although they did the wraiths little damage. The arrows flew straight
through their grey insubstantiality, and the only wraith that dropped was one who'd turned at the
sound of arrow flight and had been skewered through the eye.
"Aim for their eyes!" DareWing shouted, cursing himself that he'd not remembered this fundamental
rule of the Skraeling hunt. "Aim for their eyes!"
But the hunt was harder now, for the Skraelings had dispersed, scattering over the
snow and ice, blending in so
perfectly with their surroundings that the Icarii found it difficult to distinguish them.
The rabbit, however, had turned to snarl and snap at the Strike Force members now
wheeling overhead, and one of the Icarii sent an arrow thudding into its side.
 It toppled over, screaming thinly.
The Wing had now dispersed to deal with the Skraelings individually, and DareWing hovered above
the action, shouting advice and encouragement, but mostly staying out of the way. The Icarii needed no
aid to do what they'd come back to do: exact revenge and clean the wasteland of the corruption that
tainted it.
Much higher, so high they were but specks in the sky, the remainder of the Strike Force hovered,
waiting, and hungering for the time when they, too, could loose their arrows.
Another Skraeling fell, then another, then three more in quick succession.
DareWing permitted himself a smile of quiet satisfaction. These might only be Skraelings rather than
the Demonic hordes, but they were a start, they were a start...
Something frightful suddenly, stunningly, appeared in the sky to DareWing's south.
He did not see it at first, but rather, became aware of a change in the rabbit, still noisily
involved in its dying on the bloodstained snow.
It was still screaming — but in triumph, not pain.
DareWing stared, and then the looming figure to the south caught his attention.
He looked up, and his breath caught in his throat.
A gigantic serpent wriggled its way through the sky towards them. It had wings, two pitiful feathered
contraptions just behind its head, but was flying more through the sinuous undulations of its body than the
motion of its wings.
It was grinning.
DareWing recognised Sheol instantly. Despair radiated out from her in waves, but underlying the
despair was a far more sinister power. DareWing knew she would be difficult to deal with.
He breathed deeply, calming himself, then motioned the Wing back to join the rest of the Strike
Force.