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

this daunting world might once have been inhabited. Atop one of the coastal
cliffs, a huge boulder had been carved into the shape of what looked like an
enormous fish. Although it resembled nothing Terrel had ever seen before, its
fins and tail were undoubtedly meant to be part of a marine creature. He had
seen another, much smaller and simpler, representation of the beast once
before. And seeing it now gave him a surge of hope. This at least was a sign
he did understand.
'Are you sure?' Terrel asked excitedly. 'Like a giant fish?'
'Yes. It's a whale,' Ostan repeated patiently. 'I've seen it many times. Why?'
'That's where I want to go ashore.'
The captain of the Skua looked at Terrel as if he were mad.
'That's impossible.'
'Please. It's very important.'
'It's just a sculpture,' Ostan said. 'I mean, it's impressive all right, but
you'd get just as good a view of it from the sea. Better, in fact.'
'That's not the point.'
'Then what is? Why is this so important to you?' Ostan was aware that several
of his crew were standing nearby, listening to the conversation with interest.
Passengers were usually tolerated on board, rather than welcomed, but Terrel
had been more acceptable than most - for obvious reasons. However, that would
change quite rapidly if the foreigner became more trouble than he was worth.
Ridiculous requests like this would not help his cause.
'There's a path I'm bound to follow,' Terrel replied, looking uncomfortable
now. 'I swore an oath, and this is part of it.'
Ostan didn't know what to make of that.
'You're not making any sense,' he said. 'There's no path near there.'
'That's not what I meant,' the healer said, but Ostan ignored him.
'In fact, that part of the coastline is treacherous,' the captain went on.
'There are shoals and rocks just below the tide line and the currents are
dangerous, especially when the tides are turning. I probably wouldn't be able
to put you ashore there even if I wanted to. And if I did, you'd have to scale
the cliffs to reach the whale. You don't look like much of a rock-climber to
me. Then—'
'That's my problem,' Terrel cut in. 'Won't you at least try?'
'No. You obviously don't understand—' 'You wouldn't have to put me ashore
yourselves. Just get me close enough so I can swim for it.' Ostan's expression
changed from one of puzzlement to
outright incredulity, and Terrel saw that some of the sailors were grinning
now.
'I can swim well enough,' he claimed, but then began to doubt his own words.
He was much stronger than when he had escaped from Havenmoon, and he'd been
able to swim even then, in spite of the fact that his right leg was twisted
and his right arm was withered so that the hand was little more than a rigid
claw. The heavy clothes he now wore as protection against the cold disguised
his deformities a little, but he would never be genuinely athletic. What was
more, although he'd swum in various lakes and rivers, he had never been in the
open sea — especially one as rough as this — and if the coastline was as
rugged as Ostan claimed, he was just as likely to be dashed upon the rocks as
he was to drown. And there was another factor he had not even considered.
'I'm sure you can,' Ostan conceded, 'but in these waters no one would survive