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

'You're a bright lad,' he said, when the silence had
dragged on long enough. 'I'm sure you can do anything you set your mind to.
But be careful you don't anger the gods.'
'I'll be careful, jokull,' Yarek promised earnestly.
'Besides, you don't have to decide yet. And you'll soon have the chance to
sleep on it.' Takkara smiled, and the boy grinned back, but — as so often now
— there was something hidden behind his large, pale blue eyes.
The reference to the long winter sleep had indeed set Yarek thinking. When
he'd been an infant, he'd accepted the hibernation as natural, just another
part of the life that was organized for him by others. By the time he was a
few years old, it had frightened him, and his mother had been ashamed of his
crying. He had grown out of that and had returned to unquestioning acceptance
once more - though with a little more understanding this time. And now, as the
days grew shorter, Yarek was actually looking forward to it. When the spring
came, unlike most of the others, he would remember his dark dreams. And it was
in those dreams that he learnt so much, saw so much.
That was his great secret, the reason he knew he was destined to be a wizard -
no matter what anybody said. Unwittingly, his grandfather had confirmed his
faith. 'You can do anything you set your mind to.' Rules were meant to be
broken. Yarek had decided that long ago. And if the greatest wizard the four
Quarters had ever seen could not break some rules, then who could?
PART ONE
MYVATAN
Chapter One
Far off the starboard bow, the sea was burning.
'I bet you've never seen anything like that before,' Kahl remarked. 'However
far you've travelled.'
Terrel stared at the fire, wondering how such a thing could be possible. As he
watched, another burst of flame erupted, sending a shower of glittering red
sparks into the air and burnishing the surrounding waves as though they were
made of bronze. Above them, a pall of black smoke and grey steam trailed away
on the wind.
'There'll be an island there come the autumn,' Kahl added knowledgeably.
'An island?'
'The fire conies from the heart of Nydus,' the sailor explained. 'And as it
rises up from the seabed, it brings rock with it. Those sparks you saw just
now, some of them were boulders bigger than your head, and they're all made of
stone so hot it turns to liquid and glows like a blacksmith's furnace.'
Terrel turned to look at his companion, trying to judge whether he was being
serious or not. Kahl was one of the few crewmen who had been willing to talk
to him and Terrel had tried to establish some degree of friendship with him.
He had told the sailor a little of his own travels, and hoped for information
in return. He was heading towards another alien land, and seeing the ocean
burst
into flame had emphasized just how little he knew about this region of Nydus.
'But when it hits the water and cools, the rock becomes solid again,' Kahl
went on, apparently quite in earnest. 'And it gradually builds up until
there's a new island for us to sail around.'
'I'm glad you said sail around,' Terrel commented. 'I wouldn't want to get too
close to anything like that.'