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

Axis had escaped to his - their — father he would prove a far more formidable
opponent. Enough to counter Gorgrael's command of the Dark Music? Gorgrael
was not sure. Axis was certainly now too strong to be vulnerable to his
SkraeBolds. But as the third verse of the Prophecy gave Axis the key to destroy
Gorgrael, so it gave Gorgrael the key to destroy Axis. The Prophet had been
kind.
The key was the Lover mentioned in the Prophecy. If Gorgrael could destroy
her, he would destroy Axis. Axis was vulnerable to nothing but love, and
eventually love could prove his destruction.
Gorgrael shrieked again, but this time in glee. It would take time, but
eventually he would have her. The traitor was in place. All he needed was the
opportunity.
Faraday. Gorgrael had gleaned much from this room. She was the one to
whom Timozel had bound himself, she had given Axis the power of the emerald
fire that had decimated Gorgrael's Skraeling force. For that alone she deserved
to die. For the fact that Axis loved her Faraday would die slowly. For her alliance
with the Mother and with the Trees she would die alone and friendless. Gorgrael
dug his claws deep into the mattress and shredded it with a single twist of his
powerful arm. This is what he would do to Faraday's body. After she had begged
for her life, pleaded for mercy, screamed as she submitted herself to his will. He
would shred her!
Gorgrael's eyes drifted towards the shattered window. Most of the hamlets
and towns of Ichtar lay in ruins. Hsingard, the one-time seat of the Duke of
Ichtar, was useless rubble. Tens of thousands of Ichtar's inhabitants had died.
The Skraelings had fed well. But not all had gone according to plan, and
satisfaction was still a way off. Axis had escaped, and in doing so had badly
damaged Gorgrael's force.
If Gorgrael had enough Skraelings to occupy Ichtar then he did not have a
strong enough force left to harry either Axis or Borneheld. The Duke of Ichtar
had managed to flee south with almost five thousand men (and her) and even
now approached Jervois Landing. There he would no doubt make his stand by
the running waters.
Neither Gorgrael nor his creatures liked running water. It made music from
beauty and peace, not darkness. It tinkled. Gorgrael screamed in frustration and
completed his destruction of the bed. He was severely disappointed in his
SkraeBolds. Borneheld's escape had been assisted by their inability to focus the
Skraelings' attention on attacking the Duke's column as it fled south. While it was
true that many Skraelings trembled at the SkraeBolds' screams and threats of
retribution, many others did not. Long had the Skraelings hungered to drive into
the pleasant southern lands, long had they resented their icy northern wastes.
Now, as the defeat of Gorkenfort opened Ichtar to them, they spread across the
province in largely unrestrained and undisciplined glee, a misty, whispery mob
that destroyed without thought. The SkraeBolds had found it impossible to rally
enough Skraelings to make any serious attempt on Borneheld's fleeing force, and
had to confine themselves to harrying the flanks and rearguard of his column.
Not only were the Skraelings proving harder to control and the SkraeBolds
less efFectual than he had hoped, Gorgrael also had to admit that his forces had
been so weakened by the fury Axis had unleashed on them above Gorkenfort
that it would take him months to rebuild an army strong enough and disciplined
enough to push further south than Hsingard. And as the SkraeBolds trembled