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

they claimed she had played in the abduction of Lord Tycho Issian's
daughter Selen, before she could be swallowed by it, but her right hand
had been burned raw and red, her fingers fused into a clublike mass. He
had thought she would never forge another sword, never decorate another
dagger, never climb another cliff; but now here she was with a full
complement of pristine fingers and a separate thumb once more, sitting
cheerfully on top of her favorite route. Aran had never been much of a
believer in magic, but what he had experienced of late had given him
considerable pause for thought.
"So," Katla grinned at him, the sun adding mischievous sparks to her
tawny eyes, "now that I'm whole again, can I go with Fent and Halli to
Halbo to capture the king's new shipmaker?"
Aran dropped her hand as if it had burned him. It was impossible that
anyone else had crept up the Hound's Tooth to overhear them, but even so,
he could not help but glance around anxiously.
"What? How could you know?"
Never an accomplished liar? partly through laziness, for it was simpler
to tell the truth? Katla opted for the easy explanation: "I overheard you
and the lads plotting in the barn after the feast. To bring Morten Danson
back here, whether he will or no, and all the timber and tools and men,
too, so that he can make an ice-breaking ship for your expedition north,
through the floes."
Aran's eyes hooded themselves briefly, as if he cloaked his thoughts
from her. When he looked up again, his face was dark with some hidden
passion. "You cannot tell anyone. You know that, don't you? The future of
our family is at stake here."
"So you'll let me go with them?"
"It's strong men that are needed, not girls," he said roughly.
Katla's nostrils flared. "I can fight as well as my brothers: I can wrestle
better than Halli and wield a sword better than Fent? "
"You are not going. Your mother needs you here."
 "My mother! All I do is get under her feet and remind her what a hard
job it's going to be to marry me off? "
Aran gripped her so hard that she almost yelped. "When I make this
expedition, you will be running Rockfall with Bera: you'd better start
learning the way of things now."
"But, Da!" Treacherously, Katla's eyes had filled with sudden, scorching
tears. If she could not sail to Halbo, she'd been consoling herself that at
least she'd be sailing with the expedition force, to find the legendary island
of Sanctuary and the treasure that was hidden there. She blinked
furiously. "You need to take me with you? who else can shin up the
mastpole when the lines get tangled? Who else can feel the draw of the
land when there's none to be seen?"
"I've nearly lost you twice, girl: I'd not forgive myself if I lost you again."
Katla wrenched herself free of his grasp so violently that Aran fell
backward, his head striking an outcrop of granite splotched with rosettes
of gold lichen. She leaped to her feet, her shadow falling across him for a
moment, then she took off down the cliff path without looking back.
With a groan, Aran levered himself upright, an expression of pain
tightening the lines on his handsome face, though it could not be said