"Mercedes Lackey - EM 2 - The Gates Of Sleep" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

and rarely exhibited his work. Alanna wasn't entirely clear just how he managed to
sell his work; it might have been through a gallery, or more likely, by word of mouth.
Certainly once anyone actually saw one of his paintings, it generally sold itself. Take
the rich colors of a Rossetti, add the sinuosity of line of a Burne-Jones, and lay as a
foundation beneath it all the lively spirit of a Millais, and you had Sebastian. Adaptor
of many styles, imitator of none; that was Sebastian.
His brother-in-law, mild-eyed Thomas Buford, was the carver of Marina's cradle
and a maker of every sort of furniture, following the Aesthetic edict that things of
utility should also be beautiful. He had a modest clientele of his own, as did his sister,
Margherita (Sebastian's wife) who was as skilled with needle and tapestry-shuttle as
her husband was with brush and pen. The three of them lived and worked together in
an apparent harmony quite surprising to those who would have expected the usual
tempestuous goings-on of the more famous (or infamous) Pre-Raphaelites of
London. They lived in an enormous old vine-covered farmhouse—which Sebastian
claimed had once been a medieval manor house that was home to one of King
Arthur's knights—just over the border in Cornwall.
This trio had been Alanna's (and her husband Hugh's) friends for most of their
lives, from their first meeting as children in Hugh's nursery, sharing his lessons with
his tutors.
The remaining three, however disparate their ages and social statures—well, it
had only been natural for them all to become friends as adolescents and young
adults first out in adult society.
And that was because they were all part of something much larger than an artistic
circle or social circle.
They were all Elemental Masters; magicians by any other name. Each of them
commanded, to a greater or lesser extent, the magic of a specific element: Earth, Air,
Fire, or Water, and they practiced their Magics together and separately for the benefit
and protection of their land and the people around them. There was a greater Circle
of Masters based in London, but Hugh and Alanna had never taken part in any of its
works. They met mostly with the double-handful of Masters who confined their
workings to goals of smaller scope, here in the heart of Devon.
Marina stirred in her nest of soft lace, but did not wake; Alanna gazed down at
her with an upswelling of passionate adoration. She was a lovely baby, and that was
not just the opinion of her doting parents.
Hugh and Alanna were Earth Masters; their affinity with that Element was the
reason why they seldom left their own land and property. Like most Earth Masters,
they felt most comfortable when they were closest to a home deep in the countryside,
far from the brick-and-stone of the great cities. Margherita was also an Earth Master;
her brother Thomas shared her affinity, and this was why they had shared Hugh's
tutors.
For the magic, in most cases, passed easily from parent to child in Hugh's family,
and there was a long tradition in the Roeswood history of beginning training in the
exercise of power along with more common lessons. So tutors, and sometimes even
a child's first nurse, were also Mages.
Hugh's sister Arachne, already an adult, was long gone from the household,
never seen, seldom heard from, by the time he was ready for formal schooling. Magic
had skipped her, or so it appeared, and Hugh had once ventured the opinion that this
seemed to have made her bitter and distant. She had married a tradesman, a
manufacturer of pottery, and for some reason never imparted to Hugh, this had
caused a rift in the already-strained relationship with her parents.