"Robert Jordan - The Wheel of Time 02 - The Great Hunt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jordan Robert)

The city stood on high hills, the land around the city walls cleared to ankle height for a full mile in all
directions, and the keep covered the highest hill of all. From the tower top, Rand had a clear view across
the chimneys and roofs to the forest. The drummers appeared first from the trees, a dozen of them,
drums lifting as they stepped to their own beat, mallets whirling. Next came trumpeters, long, shining
horns raised, still calling the flourish. At that distance Rand could not make out the huge, square banner
whipping in the wind behind them. Lan grunted, though; the Warder had eyes like a snow eagle.

Rand glanced at him, but the Warder said nothing, his eyes intent on the column emerging from the
forest. Mounted men in armor rode out of the trees, and women on horseback, too. Then a palanquin
borne by horses, one before and one behind, its curtains down, and more men on horseback. Ranks of
men afoot, pikes rising above them like a bristle of long thorns, and archers with their bows held slanted
across their chests, all stepping to the drums. The trumpets cried again. Like a singing serpent the column
wound its way toward Fal Dara.

The wind flapped the banner, taller than a man, straight out to one side. As big as it was, it was close
enough now for Rand to see clearly. A swirl of colors that meant nothing to him, but at the heart of it, a
shape like a pure white teardrop. His breath froze in his throat. The Flame of Tar Valon.

"Ingtar's with them." Lan sounded as if his thoughts were elsewhere. "Back from his hunting at last. Been
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gone long enough. I wonder if he had any luck?"

"Aes Sedai," Rand whispered when he finally could. All those women out there . . . Moiraine was Aes
Sedai, yes, but he had traveled with her, and if he did not entirely trust her, at least he knew her. Or
thought he did. But she was only one. So many Aes Sedai together, and coming like this, was something
else again. He cleared his throat; when he spoke, his voice grated. "Why so many, Lan? Why any at all?
And with drums and trumpets and a banner to announce them."

Aes Sedai were respected in Shienar, at least by most people, and the rest respectfully feared them, but
Rand had been in places where it was different, where there was only the fear, and often hate. Where he
had grown up, some men, at least, spoke of "Tar Valon witches" as they would speak of the Dark One.
He tried to count the women, but they kept no ranks or order, moving their horses around to converse
with one another or with whoever was in the palanquin. Goose bumps covered him. He had traveled with
Moiraine, and met another Aes Sedai, and he had begun to think of himself as worldly. Nobody ever left
the Two Rivers, or almost nobody, but he had. He had seen things no one back in the Two Rivers had
ever laid eyes on, done things they had only dreamed of, if they had dreamed so far. He had seen a
queen and met the Daughter-Heir of Andor, faced a Myrddraal and traveled the Ways, and none of it
had prepared him for this moment.

"Why so many?" he whispered again.

"The Amyrlin Seat's come in person." Lan looked at him, his expression as hard and unreadable as a
rock. "Your lessons are done, sheepherder." He paused then, and Rand almost thought there was
sympathy on his face. That could not be, of course. "Better for you if you were a week gone." With that
the Warder snatched up his shirt and disappeared down the ladder into the tower.