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

On her arrival six weeks ago Azhure had wondered at the height and width
of the corridors - but their spaciousness was explained the moment she saw
several Icarii wing their graceful way along the corridor, several paces above her
head. Fortunately for her, the complex also had stairs that wound about the
walls of the vertical shafts. Icarii children did not develop wings until they were
four or five years of age, and did not learn to fly well until they were eight or
nine. And occasionally an Icarii who injured a wing might have to walk the
corridors or climb the stairs. MorningStar, StarDrifter's mother, was such a one.
She had been unable to attend the Yuletide rites in the Earth Tree Grove after
snapping a tendon in her left wing, and was still grumbling about the indignity of
having to use the stairs.
Leaving the shaft, Azhure passed the doors to the massive Talon Spike
Library. The Avar Bane Raum spent most of his days here, teaching the wingless
youngsters about the Avar and their forest home. Azhure's thoughts drifted to
Rivkah as she walked. Over the many years that Azhure had known Rivkah - or
GoldFeather as she had been called until recently — she had never known her so
at peace with herself as she had been since Axis' arrival. Rivkah might yet have
her unhappinesses with StarDrifter, but the reunion with the son she had long
thought dead had healed a festering wound in Rivkah's heart. She spent many
hours each day guiding Azhure through the intricacies of Icarii society, teasing
the young woman mercilessly when she gaped open-mouthed at some of the
more permissive practices of the Icarii.
"You are already a much sought-after prize, Azhure Groundwalker, with your
raven-black hair and mysterious smoke-filled eyes," Rivkah had said only this
morning. "Will you survive the Beltide festivities without being cradled within
some lovers wings?"
Azhure had blushed and turned away, thinking uncomfortably of the way
StarDrifter had begun to watch her recently. The last thing she wanted to do was
come between StarDrifter and Rivkah, who was rapidly filling the void caused by
the loss of Azhure's mother so early in life. Azhure couldn't remember a time
when she hadn't woken several nights a week, her cheeks wet with tears of loss;
but now she slept soundly, and the unsettling dreams that had troubled her for
more than twenty years had vanished entirely.
Azhure abruptly realised that for the past five or six weeks she had been
constantly happy. Never had she been accepted before, and the Icarii not only
seemed to accept her for who she was, but they actually liked her.
She nodded to an Icarii passing overhead, her thoughts returning to
EvenSong. Azhure had so far resisted the urge to join the Strike Force in
weapons training for fear of giving in to the violent streak the Avar claimed she
possessed. She shuddered, remembering how after she had seized the arrow
and killed her first Skraeling, she had been consumed with the desire to kill.
Perhaps the Avar were right to regard her with some degree of apprehension.
But Azhure had made up her mind. Axis was right; she should seek her own
path. If her path lay in violence, then perhaps she should simply accept that.
Accept the blood and turn it into a mark of respect, not of reproach.
She turned down a corridor to her left, then ran lightly down several levels
of stairs, her grace causing the Icarii birdman who soared past her to turn his
head and watch for long moments until the Groundwalker woman disappeared
into a corridor far below.
EvenSong had a leather thong tied about her pale-skinned forehead to keep