"Sara Douglass - The Axis Trilogy 3 - StarMan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglass Sara)

she'd lashed at them before she'd stalked out the door. Ogden and Veremund had scurried after her,
their cheeks streaked with tears, asking her where she was going. "Into Prophecy - where you have
thrust me," Faraday had snapped.

"Then take our donkeys and their bags and panniers," they'd begged.

Faraday nodded curtly. "If you wish."

Then she had left them standing in the corridor, as much victims of the Prophecy as she was.

Now all she knew was that she had to go east and that, sooner or later, she would have to begin the
transfer of the seedlings from Ur's nursery in the Enchanted Woods beyond the Sacred Grove to this
world.

Faraday gathered the leads of the placid donkeys and turned to the stable entrance. A heavily
cloaked figure stood there, shrouded in shadows. Faraday jumped, her heart pounding.

"Faraday?" a soft voice asked, and she let out a breath in sheer relief. She'd thought that this dark
figure might be the mysterious and dangerous WolfStar.

"Embeth! What are you doing down here? Why are you cloaked so heavily?"

Embeth tugged back the hood. Her face was pale and drawn, her eyes showing the strain of sleepless
nights.

"You're leaving, Faraday?"

Faraday stared at the woman, remembering how Embeth, like the Sentinels, had urged her into the
marriage with Borneheld. She also remembered that Embeth and Axis had been lovers for many years.
Well could you dissuade me from Axis and urge me to Borneheld's bed, she thought sourly, when you
had enjoyed Axis for so long.

But Faraday forced herself to remember that Embeth had been doing only what she thought best for a
young girl untutored in the complexities of court intrigue. Embeth had known nothing of prophecies or of
the maelstrom that had, even then, caught so many of its victims into its swirling dark outer edges.

"Yes. There is no place for me here, Embeth. I travel east," she replied, deliberately vague, letting
Embeth think she was travelling back to her family home in Skarabost.

Embeth's hands twisted in front of her. "What of you and Axis?"

Faraday stared unbelievingly at her before she realised that Embeth probably had no knowledge of
the day's events.

"I leave Axis to his lover, Embeth. I leave him to Azhure." Her voice was so soft that Embeth had to
strain to hear it.
 "Oh, Faraday," she said, hesitating only an instant before she stepped forward and hugged the woman
tightly. "Faraday, I am sorry I did not tell you...about...well, about Azhure and her son. But I could not
find the words, and after a few days I had convinced myself that you must have known. That Axis must
have told you. But I saw your face yesterday when Axis acknowledged Azhure and named her son as his