"Julia Gray - Guardian 04 - The Red Glacier" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gray Julia)

real; he knew that. But it was important. Seeing it in ruins made him tremble.
He wanted to scream, to warn her, but he had no voice here. He watched in
dismay as the city began to break into jagged shards and sink below the icy
water.
A different sea claimed him then, the pulsing crimson ocean he thought he'd
left behind for ever. The blind realm of red terror was from a time before
he'd been born - a world ruled by Jax and his malevolent energy, where
Terrel's only defence had been to make himself small, invisible.
When Terrel woke, drained and shivering, something else Alyssa had said was
running through his mind. The crystal's broken, isn't it? Smashed.
She knew.
Although the message had apparently been from
Muzeni, it hadn't sounded like something the old seer would say - even taking
into account the fact that he'd been a heretic when he was alive. On this
occasion, Alyssa had been speaking for herself.
She knew.
Terrel understood the dream a little better now. Although earlier visions had
been incomprehensible, he had learnt that the crystal city represented the
shield around Alyssa — and presumably the other sleepers — a shield that both
imprisoned and protected her. And because the fate of the sleepers was
inextricably linked to the Ancients, it followed that the vision must somehow
come from them. In a sense it represented them. But if that were the case, the
elemental here on Myvatan was not only very ill, it was also hopelessly
unbalanced and possibly beyond help. It was not an encouraging thought.
It's just a dream, he told himself as he forced stiff, cold muscles into
reluctant action. He had used this argument before. He hadn't believed it then
and he didn't believe it now.
Morning spread a chill light over the empty grey-green sea. The Skua was long
gone, and Terrel was on his own. He had no way back. He could either stay
where he was, and die, or he could climb.
As he settled the straps of his pack over his shoulder, and retied the laces
of the specially adapted boot that fitted his crooked right foot, Terrel
realized that the madness he had sensed the night before was still there. But
now he found he was able to treat it as a constant part of the background.
Unnatural though it was, it was like the noise of the sea. After a while you
still heard it, but you ceased to listen. In the same way, he was still aware
of the insanity, but it no longer threatened to disorientate or disable him.
At least now, unpleasant though it was, he had
a possible explanation for the sickness that had permeated the very fabric of
the island.
As he left the cave, he looked hopefully up at the wheeling gulls and other
birds that inhabited the cliffs and coastline. He longed for one of them to be
Alyssa, but no matter how welcome her aid would be just then, there was no
sign of her. And there wasn't likely to be until he got further from the
ocean. He was on his own.
Terrel was relieved to find that the cliff face was not entirely vertical, as
it had appeared from out to sea, and that it was possible to scramble up parts
of the lower section in relative safety. It was rough going, and he had to be
careful where he planted his feet, but he made steady progress. Higher up, the
slopes became steeper and keeping his balance was more difficult, but at least