"Gray, Julia - Guardian 01 - The Dark Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gray Julia)

The man ran off, and the rest returned their gaze to Terrel. Secure in the knowledge that there was nothing wrong at the village, the boy took a few paces towards Chenowith, hoping to be able to talk to his unexpected ally. To his surprise, the harvesters and the underseer all moved back. They were still afraid of him. Deciding to act in the least threatening way possible, and giving up any thoughts of a conversation, Terrel simply sat down in the stubble and waited.
In due course Yatil returned with the news that all was well, but although the mood relaxed a little, it was clear that the antagonism towards the stranger persisted. Chenowith came over to Terrel as the boy rose to his feet.
'You'd better leave,' he said quietly. 'While you still can. These peasants have no education and are prone to violence.'
'I meant no harm to anyone.'
'I know. I'm sorry.'
Terrel went, limping as fast as he could, heading away from the village. He knew he was being watched by everyone there, and did not feel safe until he was some distance away. He had been granted several insights into the ways of the world that day, but the one that caused him the most pain was the fact that, for all his supposed sympathy, not even Chenowith had been able to look him straight in the eye.
That night, alone again, Terrel slept on a bed of moss beneath a thatch of leaves. The woodland seemed unnaturally quiet, lacking the normal assortment of rustlings and nocturnal cries, and he felt uneasy.
When sleep finally came, he dreamt of burning cornfields and choking drifts of smoke. Then he was caught in a whirlwind so that he was spun round and round, grasping at fleeting images. Endless pages of script, that he knew he must read somehow, were blowing in the wind, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not catch them. When stillness returned, Terrel looked into a mirror and saw his own face, but his eyes were opaque, milky white. The mirror shattered, leaving him blind. Then he was high above a great city, looking down upon hundreds of magnificent buildings. He heard bells ringing - and he felt contempt and a sense of boredom, feelings that were alien to him and yet somehow familiar, even comfortable. Then they too vanished into the echoing thunder.
The end came, as he knew it would, in the unreasoning terror of the crimson sea - the sea that reduced him to nothing, and left him drained and sweating in the cold darkness of the forest.

Chapter Sixteen

'What are you doing up here?'
Jax turned from his airy contemplation and stared at his father. It was hard to tell which of them was the most surprised. The whole court knew that the prince liked to sleep late in the mornings, and Dheran seemed as frail as he was absent-minded - and yet here they both were, atop the highest tower of the imperial palace at dawn.
'Nothing much,' Jax replied, then grinned. 'Actually, I was trying to find somewhere Mirival won't think of looking. His lessons are getting more and more boring.' He had no intention of telling his father about the dream that had propelled him out of bed to their current lofty perch. 'What are you doing here?'
'Oh, I don't sleep much these days,' the Emperor said. 'I wander about, you know. Probably drive the servants mad, popping up all over the place.'
'Probably,' Jax agreed, still grinning.
'I come up here when I want to look out over the city and think.'
'Think about what?'
'Oh, the responsibilities of being Emperor, how the people regard me, that sort of thing.'
'Sounds a bit too serious for me,' the prince commented. Whenever he looked out over Makhaya he felt only irritation that he knew so little about its more interesting districts, and he regarded his father's subjects with disdain.
'They are serious matters,' Dheran said gravely. 'You may joke about your education, but it's the foundation of what you must learn before you are fit to become Emperor.'
Jax groaned inwardly.
'I thought my lineage made me fit to be Emperor,' he said, his voice sulky.
'Eligible,' his father replied. 'Not fit. That is a privilege you must earn if you are to command respect.'
People will respect me, Jax thought. They won't last long if they don't. His surprise at meeting his father was turning to annoyance, and he was beginning to wish he could think of some way to escape. At the very least he had to find a way to change the subject of their conversation.
'Did you hear the bells this morning?' he asked.
'Of course,' Dheran replied. 'They're another reason I wasn't able to stay in bed. Do you know why they were ringing?'
Jax realized that he had fallen into a trap he'd unwittingly set for himself.
'No,' he admitted.
'They were marking the full of the White Moon,' the Emperor told him, using the patronizingly 'adult' tone that his son found so infuriating. 'You would know that if you paid attention to your studies. Every man on Vadanis has to be aware of the lunar cycles. You, more than anyone, should realize that.'
Here we go, Jax thought helplessly. It'll be the fate and destiny speech now.
'The moons prophesied your fate from the moment of your birth,' Dheran said on cue, but then he fell silent and when he spoke again a few moments later his tone had become melancholy, and his thoughts had evidently ranged out in new directions. 'Your destiny was supposed to be fulfilled when you're seventy-five. That's a long time to wait, and I wouldn't live to see it, of course. I mean, I'd be . . .' He struggled with the sum for a while, then gave up. 'Over a hundred, anyway. So it's not likely, is it?'
Moons! I hope not, Jax exclaimed silently. Few people even lived to the venerable age of seventy-five - which in itself seemed impossibly ancient to the fourteen-year-old prince. A hundred was just ridiculous.
'But now I hear it might be earlier,' the Emperor went on, staring dreamily at some distant clouds that the newly risen sun was painting a delicate coral shade.
The sooner the better, Jax thought. He knew he was supposed to become a hero in due course, and liked the status this conveyed upon him, but no one ever told him how he was to go about it. All he got were yet more tedious lessons.
'Mirival told me that,' the prince said, feeling that he ought to make some contribution to the conversation.
'Ah, so you pay attention to some of the things your tutor tells you,' his father remarked, smiling.
'Of course I do. It's just that so much of it is so dull, and I can't see what any of it's got to do with me - or my destiny.' Jax remembered his last lesson, when his impatience had boiled over into an ill-tempered outburst. He'd informed Mirival that because he was in the prophecy, he was going to be a hero whether he knew all these boring facts or not. The seer had replied that he certainly hoped so, but his tone had been so insolent that the prince had been enraged, and had stormed out of the lesson in disgust. He hoped the incident had not been reported to his father, or Dheran would no doubt embark on another lecture.
'Most people think he's the Mentor,' the Emperor said. 'He's there to guide you.'
'I suppose so,' Jax replied, pretending to agree meekly in the hope that Dheran had finished.
'Of course, you weren't the only one born that night.'
This remark caught the prince completely off guard, and he could think of nothing to say. Nor could he work out why his father had chosen this moment to raise a topic that was usually forbidden.
'I often wonder if I did the right thing,' the Emperor added vaguely.
'About the baby, you mean?'
Dheran nodded.
'I suppose he must be dead by now.'
Jax could have told him otherwise, but he decided to hold his tongue. The explanations would be too complicated and, besides, he didn't want the old fool talking to Mirival about his twin. Shahan's interfering had been bad enough - although it had presented a challenge.
'Mirival said at the time that there wasn't much hope for him,' Dheran went on, 'but perhaps if he'd stayed here in Makhaya, with all that our physicians and healers could have done . . .' He left the thought unfinished.
'Do you know where the baby was taken?' Jax asked.