"Sara Douglass - The Axis Trilogy 2 - Enchanter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglass Sara)

took pride in the knowledge that the Prophecy had chosen him among all Icarii
to breed this son, he also found it hard not to resent Axis' power. As EvenSong
resented losing her only and most favoured child status, so StarDrifter was
battling to come to terms with the fact that very soon Axis' power would surpass
his own — and StarDrifter had long revelled in being the most powerful Icarii
Enchanter alive.
StarDrifter looked back to Azhure with studied casualness. "Will you join us
this afternoon, Azhure?" he asked. With her present, both Enchanters kept a
tighter rein on their tempers. Neither MorningStar — who often helped with Axis'
training - nor Axis had so far raised any objections to Azhure s occasional
presence in the training chamber.
"I thank you for the invitation, StarDrifter, but I will refuse. I promised
EvenSong I would spend the afternoon with her. If you will excuse me."
She nodded at both men, then walked down the corridor, disappearing
around the first corner.
"Imagine the Enchanters she would bear," StarDrifter said, so quietly that
Axis could not believe he was hearing cor-recdy. "I am nothing if not a good
judge of blood."
Then he turned his powerful gaze on his son. "Over the past thousand years
the Icarii blood has thinned. Before the Wars of the Axe that severed our races
many Icarii birdmen chose to get their sons on human women. It was said that
human blood added vitality to the Icarii. You are proof enough of that."
Axis felt his anger simmering. Was StarDrifter planning another seduction?
"I love Rivkah," StarDrifter said slowly. "I demonstrated my love through
marriage - even though I believed she had lost our son. In ages past Icarii
birdmen simply took the babies of human—Icarii unions and never spared a
thought for the women they had bedded who had struggled to birth their
children."
Appalled at such evidence of Icarii insensitivity, Axis suddenly understood
the depth of hate and loathing that had led the Acharites to finally drive the Icarii
from Tencendor.
The Icarii had a lot to learn about compassion.


The Wolven
Azhure walked through the confusing maze of cor-f-\ ridors in the Talon Spike
complex, hoping she had remembered EvenSong's instructions correctly. Over at
least a thousand years the Icarii had tunnelled and excavated the mountain into
myriad chambers, connecting corridors and shafts. The Icarii not only used
horizontal corridors, but also vertical shafts - foot travellers needed to be wary of
wells opening abruptly at their feet.
Azhure paused at one of the main connecting shafts of Talon Spike, which
not only extended up to the very peak of the mountain, but also fell into its
dizzying depths. She grasped the waist-high guard rail and peered down. Two
Icarii, already several levels below her, slowly spiralled down through the shaft
side by side. Both had gorgeously dyed emerald and blue wings, and the soft
enchanted light of the shaft shimmered across their jewel-bright feathers. Azhure
had to blink back tears at their loveliness. Nothing in her previous life in Smyrton
had prepared her for the beauty and passion of life among the Icarii of Talon
Spike.