"Ann Durand - Flight of the Gryphon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Durand Ann)

river…back to the falls, where she knew she could stop the pain, the suffering…forever.

"Stop!" she shouted, as the pitch and volume mounted. "Stop. Please stop." She had managed a couple
awkward steps in the mud when the rope, still secured to her ankle, yanked her back to the ground.

Katera. Do not hesitate. The Voice had become so shrill that she felt her head would explode. You
may not hesitate. Run, run to the altar like the hoshdel, or you shall perish in great misery.

Katera struggled to release the lasso around her ankle, but panic had made matchsticks of her fingers,
and she fumbled like a small child.
"Help me!" she screamed, but the silver man was already edging forward on the hoshdel, coiling the rope.
When he reached her side, she looked up at him, her face wet with tears of pain and exasperation. "Help
me, please."

The large hoshdel knelt slowly in the mud beside her, the heat falling off the animal's immense belly and
bathing her in its mist. The silver man's long arm reached out and hooked her around her waist. Plucking
her out of the mud, he slung her over the animal's withers onto her stomach in front of the saddle horn.
Before she could object, the hoshdel rose and was barreling out of the mud and into the forest at a
gallop. Her heart thudded in fear as she realized the silver man was heading the animal in the wrong
direction, away from the river. She tried to cry out again, but her voice faded into the noise of pounding
hooves. The man's thigh was inches from her head, so she stretched her neck out and let her teeth sink
into the silver suit.

The layer of suit was thin, like a single shaving from the ternok tree used for writing. Her teeth did not
puncture through it though, which was odd, since she felt the flesh beneath it yield under her bite. The
silver man yelped, reined in the hoshdel and pried her loose, tossing her unceremoniously onto the
ground.

She landed in the dirt on her back, the lasso still attached to her foot. She stared up at him, the Voice still
reverberating inside her head. He hopped off his hoshdel brandishing a long, slender dagger. Katera
gulped and sat up, but he pushed her back to the ground, pinning her with one arm. With the other, he
brought the knife to her forehead, pressed the sharp tip into it and sliced. A streak of warm red liquid
trickled between Katera's eyes just before she passed out.

Chapter Two
Katera's eyes opened slowly. She could see nothing in the blackness. She reached out and felt a pad
beneath her filled with something soft, like bird down. She felt around it. It was laid out over a hard
surface. Was it rock? Stretching her arm out further, her hand hit a wall, a bumpy wall. Was she in a
cave?

Her forehead throbbed, and she remembered. Her hand flew to a small bandage over her forehead. The
silver man…he had cut her. What happened after that? Who had bandaged her?

She patted her hands over the rest of her head and body. Everything felt fine. Other than the cut, she was
not harmed. But why did he do it? Her Lan Ma Ke had glowed in safety around him. Could it be that her
gift had failed her?

She heard a faint scuffling in the darkness and froze. A dim light glowed in the distance. Someone was
coming. She rolled off the pad and crawled on her hands and knees over the rock floor. Whoever it was
expected to find her on the pad. If she could find a place to hide...a crevice, or maybe a way out…