"Jude Fisher - Fool's Gold 02 - Wild Magic" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fisher Jude)

discipline of controlled movement and the ultimate expression of the
wildest part of herself. Whenever her life became frustrating or alarming,
she would climb. The necessities of the activity brought a great simplicity
to life, she found: move carefully, hold tight; do not fall. When she
climbed, she was forced to make these her only concerns so that all other
anxieties receded into insignificance; but to be assailed by this tangible
flow of earth magic, with all the complexities and consequences it brought
into her life turned simple escape into a perplexing discussion of the
nature of the world.
The sea, she thought now, looking out over that wide blue expanse. The
sea's the answer. I may feel the magic running out of the reefs and
skerries; but surely over the deepest ocean it will leave me be? I'll put my
case to Da, make him take me on his expedition?



ARAN'S lungs and legs were complaining long before he crested the
final ridge, even though the landward path was far more kindly than his
daughter's route to the top. It had been a long time since the Master of
Rockfall had even walked to the summit of the Hound's Tooth; indeed, it
was with some chagrin that he realized that "some time" meant in truth
almost twenty years? before the island had become his domain, after his
father's death in the war with Istria. In all that time it had been a
succession of lads he'd sent up here on lookout duty: immediately after the
war for enemy ships, which could be hard to spot? since native Istrian
vessels were not designed for ocean crossings, the Southern Empire used
captured Eyran ships against the North? then, when the uneasy truce had
been established, for independent raiders intent on pillage, and more
lately, with rather less urgency, for merchant ships and those bearing men
and news from the king's court at Halbo. In his father's day, the lookouts
commanded respect in the island community, but since the Perils of war
had ebbed away, the task had fallen to green lads? second, third and
fourth sons of Rockfall retainers with no land of their own to work and few
other prospects. Young Vigli and Jam Forson were the current pair of
lookouts, and Sur knew how feckless those two could be. With war
looming again, he should set about the matter of finding reliable
replacements.
"Hello, Da."
Katla waved her hand at him. Her right hand, the one that had been
maimed. The bandages with which Bera had thought to conceal the
sudden improvement from the superstitious eyes of the world had gone, he
noticed. But, of course, no one had yet had the chance to tell Katla to keep
them on.
 With some trepidation? for Aran did not share his daughter's
nonchalance around precipitous cliffs? he sat down on the rocky outcrop,
rather farther from the edge than Katla, and took the proffered hand in
his own. In his meaty grasp it was tiny, almost fragile. He turned it over,
palm up, then palm down, and gazed at it in amazement. He had pulled
her out of the pyre the Istrians had made for her at the Allfair, for her
sacrilege (as they saw it) of climbing their sacred Rock, and for the part