"Katherine Kerr - Deverry 10 - The Black Raven" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kerr Katherine)

would call the world does she dwell, in an ineffable refulgence,'
Evandar stepped through the opening. Dressed all in black, one arm raised in a
dramatic flourish, Shaetano stood before a kneeling Raena.
'You might at least speak clearly,' Evandar remarked. 'How is the poor woman
supposed to understand nonsense like that?'
Raena screamed. Shaetano's form wavered, as if he were about to step onto a
Mother-road and disappear, then held steady as he held his ground. Evandar
turned to Raena with a sigh.
'She never was a goddess, woman!' Evandar snapped. 'And now she's dead. You
were there, you saw her die.'
'I saw naught of the sort!' Raena scrambled to her feet. 'She did but return
to her own country. And she be a goddess. I do ken this deep in my heart, you
stinking blasphemer! And she lives, I do ken that she lives still. Who are
you, that lies like maggots fall from your lips?'
'I am Lord Harmony,' Evandar said to her. 'And your Lord Havoc is my brother.
Flee this place! Leave us!'
Raena hesitated. Evandar raised a hand and called down the blue etheric fire,
leaping and flashing at his fingertips. Raena squealed, then edged past him to
squeeze through the entrance. He could hear her footsteps as she dashed down
the tunnel. When he turned back, Shaetano was leaning insolently against the
wall, arms crossed over his chest. In the shifting silver light he looked very
like a fox in man's clothing. Russet hair sprouted from his face; his ears
stood up sharply on the top of his head; his nose was black and shiny. Only
his eyes were fully elven, a shifting gold and green.
'More and more you become your avatar, brother,' Evandar said.
Shaetano swore. For a moment his image wavered; when it stabilized, his ears
had migrated back to the sides of his head, and his skin was smooth, with only
a roach of red hair pluming on his skull. His shiny black nose, however,
seemed permanently fox, twitching a little in the cold damp air.
'That's better,' Evandar said. 'Now then, I want a word with you. Though I'll
admit to being surprised you'll stay and listen to it.'
'You can't kill me. Don't you remember what you said, that day upon the battle
plain? You and I were born joined. You were the candle flame and I the shadow
it cast? Well, elder brother,' Shaetano paused for a smile, 'if you kill me,
who knows what will happen to you?'
'Here! How do you know that? I was talking with Dalla, and you were long gone
by then,'
'I have my ways.' He curled a hand that was more like a paw and smiled at his
black claws. 'And my allies.'
'Ah, I see. Your little raven was spying even then, was she? Very well. Say it
I did. You learn your lessons well.'
'And haven't you been my most excellent teacher?' Again that smug smile. 'So
talk away. What is it that you want with me now? I'll listen, though I may not
answer.'
Evandar restrained the impulse to strangle him there and then, even if his own
neck twisted.
'Ask I shall,' Evandar said aloud. 'What are you doing to this woman,
pretending to be a god and filling her head with portentous words?'
'Doing to her? She's grateful. She begs me for knowledge.'
'And did she beg you to kill young Demet the weaver's son?'