"Kerr, Katharine - Westlands 01 - A Time Of Exile v1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

"What do you think of that?" Dallandra said at last
"It never happened to me, all that blood and slime!"
"I didn't think it had, no."
"But why? What a horrible thing! Why?"
"To learn this world." Dallandra swept her arm to point out sky and earth, grass and water. "To learn all about it and never ever vanish."
For a moment Elessario considered, her mouth working in thought this, time, not disgust Then she turned, stepped, into the stream between the hazels, and was gone. That will have to do for now, Dallandra thought to herself. We'll see if she can even remember it. As she was walking back to her horse, she was thinking that Nevyn's theory of never-incarnate spirits seemed more and more true. She had just reached the tethered mare when she felt a presence behind her like a cool wind. She spun around to see Alshandra, towering and furious, carrying a bow in her hands with a silver-tipped arrow nocked and ready. Suddenly Dallandra remembered the arrow she'd been given, and remembered even more vividly that it was no etheric substance but real, sharp wood and metal.
"Why are you angry?"
"You will not come to us in our own country."
"If I did, would I ever come back to my own country?"
"What?" Alshandra's rage vanished; she seemed to shrink down to normal size, but still she clasped the bow. "Why would you want to?"
"This is where I belong. What I love dwells here."
Alshandra tossed the bow into the air, where it disappeared as if it had tumbled through an invisible window into some hidden room. Dallandra's blood ran cold: these were no ordinary spirits if they could manipulate physical matter in such a way.
"You will take my daughter from me, girl. I fear you for it."
"What? I don't want to steal your daughter."
Alshandra shook her head in a baffled frustration, as if Dallandra had misunderstood her.
"Don't lie-I can see it. You will take my daughter. But I shall have a prize in return. Remember that, girl."
Swelling and huge, she rose up, her hands like claws as she reached out. Dallandra dropped to her knees, grabbed the hilt of the buried knife, and pulled it free, rising again in one smooth motion. Alshandra shrieked in terror and fell back. For one panicked moment they stood there, staring at each other; then Alshandra's form wavered-and bulged out, as if some invisible force from the knife blade was pushing against her midriff and shoving it back. She looked exactly like a reflection on the surface of a still pool when a puff of breeze moves the water: all wavering and distorted. Then she was gone, with one last shriek left to echo and the grasslands and make Dallandra's mare kick and snort in fear.
That night Evandar appeared in Dallandra's dreams and said one simple thing: you should never have done that. She didn't need him to tell her what action he meant. What he couldn't understand was that she felt not fear but guilt, that she'd Alshandra caused such pain.
In the morning, as they sat in their tent eating wild berries and soft ewe's-milk cheese, Dallandra broke their unspoken rule about mentioning the Guardians and told Aderyn what had happened. She was utterly stunned when he became furious.
"You said you'd never go see them again!" His voice cracked with quiet rage. "What, by all the hells, did you think you were doing, going off alone like that?"
She could only stare openmouthed. He caught his breath with a gasp, swallowed heavily, and ran both hands over his face.
"Forgive me, my love. I . . . they terrify me. The Guardians, I mean."
"I don't exactly find them comforting myself, you know."
"Then why-" He checked himself with some difficulty.
The question was a valid one, and she gave it some hard, silent thought, while he waited, patient except for his hands, which clasped themselves into fists as they rested on his thighs.
"It's because they're suffering," she said at last. "Evandar is, anyway, and his daughter suspects that something's very wrong with their people. They do need help, Ado."
"Indeed? Well, I don't see why you should be the one to give it to them."
"I'm the only one they've got, so far at least."
"Well, I need you, too, and so do the rest of the People."
"I know that."
"Then why do you keep hunting these demons down?"
"Oh, come on, they're not demons!"
"I know, I know. I'm sorry. I just don't like them. And besides, it isn't all pity on your part, is it? You seem to find them fascinating on their own."
"I've got to admit that. It's because they're a puzzle. We've searched out all the lore we can, from your old master and his books, from all the other dweomerworkers among the People, and we still don't know what they are. I'm the only one who has a chance of finding out."
"It's all curiosity, then?"
"Curiosity?" She felt a surge, not of anger, but of annoyance. "I wouldn't dismiss it that way."
"I never meant to dismiss it."
"Oh, indeed?"
And they had the first fight they'd ever had, hissing the words at each other, because back and forth outside the tent the rest of the alar kept going past on their morning's chores. Finally Dallandra got up and stormed out of the tent, ran through the camp, and kept running out into the grasslands. When she slowed to a walk and looked back, she was furious to see that he hadn't followed her. She caught her breath, then walked on, heading nowhere in particular and circling round to keep the camp in sight as a distant jagged line of tents on the horizon.
"Dallandra! Dallandra!" The voice seemed far away and thin. "Wait! Father told me your name."
She spun around to see Elessario running to meet her. As she came close, the grass parted around her as if she did indeed have physical substance and weight, but her form was slightly translucent and thin. Smiling, she offered one hand, bunched in a fist to hide something.
"A present for you."
When Dallandra automatically held out her hand, Elessario dropped a silver nut onto her palm. It looked much like a walnut in a husk, and it had a bit of stem and one leaf still attached, but all of silver, solid enough to ring when Dallandra flicked the husk with her thumbnail.
"Well, thank you, but why are you giving this to me?"
"Because I like you. And as a token. If you ever want to come to our country, it'll take you there."
"Really? How?"
"Touch it to your eyes, and you'll see the roads."
Again, automatically, Dallandra started to do just that, then caught herself in the nick of time. With a shaking hand she stuffed the nut into her trousers pocket.
"Thank you, Elessario. I'll remember that."
The child smiled, and she looked so happy, so innocent in her happiness, that it was impossible to suspect her of guile. Evandar, of course, was another matter.