"Holly Lisle - World Gates 03 - Gods Old and Dark" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lisle Holly)

Thank you, Aril said. In the whisper in Rekkathav’s mind, no trace of gratitude echoed.

For a moment the Master did nothing else. Then he turned to walk away, and Rekkathav,
watching the fieldmasters, saw each of them relax.

Around the room, Rekkathav saw echoing relief on the faces of the lesser staffers.
Whatever had happened was over—it had been Vanak’s sin alone. And they had survived
it.


file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Lisle,%20Holly%20-%20[Wo...tes%2003]%20-%20Gods%20Old%20and%20Dark%20(v1).htm (13 of 292)23-7-2007 19:24:41
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What happened next, Rekkathav would never be able to expunge from his memory.

Aril made a tiny gesture with his left hand. All nine fieldmasters, plus the twitching hulk
that had been Vanak, exploded in green fire and crumbled to dust.

One of them had been so close to Rekkathav that he could feel the backwash of magic
curling against his skin, could smell dust that was all that remained of flesh and bone and
blood. Rekkathav heard screams of shock and dread throughout the Hub. He did not
scream, though; he could not even breathe. His throat locked shut, his many knees gave
way, and he dropped to the floor in a shivering, chittering pile.

The Master seemed uninterested in Rekkathav or the rest of the room’s survivors. His
attention fixed on the senior field assistant like the rays of the sun focused through a lens.
Rekkathav would have felt pity for the senior assistant had he not been so relieved not to
be him.

Gather their rings, Aril told the assistant. Place them in the terminal box.

The fear in the room grew deeper, sharper—until that moment, the punishment of the
fieldmasters had seemed simply that, a punishment, something that they would return from
once their resurrection rings re-created them. Until that instant, Rekkathav had believed
the Master of the Night Watch had been making a dramatic gesture of his displeasure.

Instead, clearly, Aril intended to overturn the universe as Rekkathav had known it.

The terminal box changed everything. The terminal box was designed to destroy
resurrection rings—to grind the gold to powder, to strip away the magic that powered
them, and to wash the resultant slurry into the sea, from whence not even the Master
himself would be able to gather all the bits back up again.

The Master was choosing to exercise his right to pass capital sentence on immortals.
Rekkathav knew of the terminal box’s being used through the history of the Night Watch,
though its use had always been rare. He was certain it had never been used to dispose of
every chief officer in the most important branch of service in the Night Watch.

The senior assistant looked like he was about to be sick. He dropped the resurrection rings