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

"I do not understand why the bridge died," the man said, and Axis slid his eyes back to him. He was
lean but strong, with Axis' own height and musculature and with coppery-coloured hair drawn back into
a tail in the nape of his neck.
The way I used to wear it as BattleAxe, Axis thought involuntarily.
The man was naked, save for a snowy linen cloth bound about his hips, and the most
beautiful — and most patently enchanted — sword that Axis had ever seen. Its hilt was in the shape of a
lily, and Axis could see the glimpse of a mirrored blade as it disappeared into a jewelled scabbard. The
scabbard hung from an equally heavily jewelled belt, balanced by a similarly jewelled purse at the man's
other hip.
Axis slid his eyes to the man's face.
Plain, ordinary, deeply lined, somewhat tired ... and utterly extraordinary. Alive and hungry with
magic. Serene and quiet with tranquillity.
Dark violet eyes regarded him with humour, understanding, and ...
"Love?" Axis said. "I do not deserve that, surely."
His voice was very hard and bitter.
"It is yours to accept or not," DragonStar said, "as you wish."
Axis stared at his son, hating himself for hating what he saw. "What have you done with Caelum?"
DragonStar paused before he replied, but his voice was steady. "Caelum is dead."
Axis' only visible reaction was a tightening of his face and a terrible hardening of his eyes. "You led
him to his death!"
"Caelum went willingly," DragonStar replied, his voice very gentle. "As he had to."
Axis stared, unable to tear his eyes from DragonStar's face, although he longed desperately to look
somewhere, anywhere, else. "I —" he began, then stopped, unable to bear the hatred in his voice, and
unable to understand to whom, or what, he wanted to direct that hatred.
There was a movement behind him, and then Azhure was at his side, as she had been for so many
years.
And as she had so many times previously, she saved him from this battle.
Azhure touched Axis' arm fleetingly, yet managing to impart infinite comfort with that briefest of
caresses, then she stepped straight past her husband to DragonStar.
She paused, then spoke. "Did Caelum see you like this? As ... as you were meant to be?"
DragonStar nodded, and Azhure's entire body jerked slightly.
Then she leaned forward and hugged her son.
He pulled her in tight against him, drawing as much love from her as she drew comfort from
him.
Axis stared, not understanding, and not particularly wanting to.
Eventually Azhure pulled back and turned slightly so she could hold out a hand to her husband. Her
eyes and cheeks were wet, but there was sadness in her face as well, and she continued to hold
DragonStar tightly with her other hand.
"Axis? I —"
"What is this, Azhure?" His voice was harsh. "Caelum is dead. Dead! And —"
"Caelum knew he was going to die," Azhure said. "He accepted it."
Axis closed his mouth into a cold, hard line.
 "And he accepted," Azhure said, "as we should have done earlier, that Drago ..." she
glanced back at her son, "that DragonStar was born to be the true StarSon."
Axis opened his mouth to say No! but found he could not voice the word. The man standing before
him was clearly not the sullen Drago who'd moped about Sigholt for so many years, and he was just as
clearly a man who wielded such great power that he ... he ... just might be ...
Axis turned his head to one side, and was surprised to feel the wetness of tears on his own cheeks
as the breeze brushed his face. "Oh gods," he said, and sank down on the ground.
"Will you meet with your father in our apartment a little later?" Azhure asked DragonStar hurriedly.