"Raymond E. Feist - Conclave of Shadows 1 - Talon of the Silver Hawk" - читать интересную книгу автора (Feist Raymond E)

 The sun rose higher in the morning sky and soon the fire died, unneeded as the heat of day returned to
the rocks. Kieli resisted the temptation to finish drinking the last of his water, for he knew that he must
harbour it until he was ready to descend the trail. He could drink his fill at the creek below, but he had to
get there first, and should he waste his water now, there was no guarantee he would safely reach the
creek.

It was rare that a boy perished upon the peaks, but it had happened. The tribe prepared each boy as
fully as possible, but those who had failed to survive the naming ordeal were considered to have been
judged by the gods as lacking and their families' mourning was a bitter counterpoint to the celebration of
Midsummer.

The heat increased and the air dried, and suddenly Kieli realized a sa'tata was upon them. The wind
from the north blew cold year round, but the summer western wind would grow hotter and dryer by the
minute.

The boy had seen grass turn brown and brittle in less than three days and fruit dry upon the branch from
this wind. Men grew restless and women irritable when the sa'tata lingered more than a few days, and the
skin itched. Kieli and his brother had swam in lakes and rivers on such days, only to be dry by the time
they had returned to the village, as if they had not felt the cooling touch of water at all.

Kieli also knew he was now in danger, for the sa'tata would suck the moisture from his body if he
remained. He glanced at the sky and realized he had only two more hours before midday.

He glanced at the sun, now more than halfway along its climb to the mid-heaven, and he blinked as
tears gathered in his eyes.

Kieli let his mind wander a few moments, as he wondered who would be chosen to sit at his side. For
while Kieli lingered on the mountain, waiting for his vision from the gods, his father would be meeting with
the father of one of the young girls of the local villages. There were three possible mates for Kieli from his
own village: Rapanuana, Smoke In The Forest's daughter; Janatua, Many Broken Spears' daughter, and
Eye of the Blue-Winged Teal, daughter of Sings To The Wind.

Eye of the Blue-Winged Teal was a year older, and had gained her woman's name the year before, but
there had been no boy of the right age in the local villages to pledge her to. This year there were six,
including Kieli. She possessed a strange sense of humour that made Kieli wonder what she found funny
most of the time. She often seemed amused by him and he felt awkward when she was near. Though he
hid it well, he was more than a little scared of her. But Rapanuana was fat and ill-tempered, and Janatua
was pinched-faced and shy to the point of being speechless around boys. Eye of the Blue-Winged Teal
had a strong, tall body, and fierce, honey-coloured eyes that narrowed when she laughed. Her skin was
lighter than the other girls' and scattered with freckles, and her heart-shaped face was surrounded by a
mane of hair the colour of summer's wheat.

He prayed to the gods that his father had met with her father the night before Midsummer, and not with
one of the other girls' fathers. Then with a surge of panic, he realized his father might have met with the
father of one of the girls from close-by villages, the slow-witted Pialua or the pretty but always complaining
Nandia!

He sighed. It was out of his hands. Stories were told of men and women who longed for one another,
sagas told by the storytellers around the fire, many of them borrowed from singers from the lowlands as
they passed through the mountains of the Orosini. Yet it was his people's way that a father would choose