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

heir and I realised then that Axis had kept his silence. That everyone had. Faraday, please forgive me."

Faraday finally broke down into the tears she had not allowed herself since that appalling moment at
the ceremony when she had realised the depth of Axis' betrayal. She sobbed, and Embeth hugged her
fiercely. For a few minutes the two women stood in the dim stable, then Faraday pulled back and wiped
her eyes, an unforced smile on her face.

"Thank you, Embeth. I needed that."

"If you are going east then you must be going past Tare," Embeth said. "Please, Faraday, let me come
with you as far as Tare. There is no place here in Carlon for me any more. Timozel has gone, only the
gods know where, my other two children are far distant - both married now - and I do not think either
Axis or Azhure would feel comfortable with my continuing presence."



As mine, Faraday thought. Discarded lovers are a source of some embarrassment.

"Judith still waits in Tare, and needs my company. And there are...other . . . reasons I should return
home."

Faraday noted the older woman's hesitancy. "StarDrifter?" she asked.

"Yes," Embeth said after a moment's hesitation. "I was a fool to succumb to his well-practised
enticements, but the old comfortable world I knew had broken apart into so many pieces that I felt lost,
lonely, unsure. He was an escape and I...I, as his son's former lover, was an irresistible challenge."

A wry grin crossed her face. "I fear I may have made a fool of myself, Faraday, and that thought hurts
more than any other pain I have endured over the past months. StarDrifter only used me to sate his
curiosity, he did not care for me. We did not even share the friendship that Axis and I did."

We have both been used and discarded by these damn SunSoar men, Faraday thought. "Well," she
said, "as far as Tare, you say? How long will it take you to pack?"

To her surprise Embeth actually laughed. "As long as it takes me to saddle a horse. I have no wish to
go back inside the palace. I already wear a serviceable dress and good boots, and should I require
anything else then I have gold pieces in my purse. We shall not want for food along the way."

Faraday smiled. "We would not have wanted for food in any case." She patted one of the saddlebags.

Embeth frowned in puzzlement at the empty saddlebag, but Faraday only reached out her hand.
"Come, let us both walk away from these SunSoar men. Let us find meaning for our lives elsewhere."

As Faraday and Embeth left the palace of Carlon, far to the north Timozel sat brooding on the dreary
shores of Murkle Bay. To his right rose the cheerless Murkle Mountains that spread north for some fifty
leagues along the western border of Aldeni.
 Relentless cold, dry winds blew off the Andeis Sea, making life all but impossible within the mountain
range.

The darkness of the waters before Timozel reflected the blackness of his mind. If, far to the south,