"Rebecca Locksley - The Three Sisters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Locksley Rebecca)

Who was that with her? He should have stopped her coming. Ah, Jagamar! Shara’s horrible brother,
who’d never done a useful thing in his life. But he hated the outlanders. What was he doing… ? As she
watched, Jagamar squeezed Shara’s shoulder as if to make a point. Shara nodded once, raised her
clasped hands and pointed them at the Tower of Olbia on the opposite headland. Mathinna felt, rather
than saw, the bolt of magic that came from between those hands.
The bolt hit the headland beneath the tower with a deep thud. There was a cracking noise and small
rocks fell. With a horrible, groaning slowness, the tower and the houses and the rock beneath them
began to slide.
“No!” screamed Mathinna. She tried to summon the power to stop the collapse, but she had no more
strength than a newborn baby.
The entire cliff face and the tower plunged into the sea with a roaring crash. A monster wave was
thrown up, smashing against the remaining headland and washing over the beach beneath, pounding boats
and little huts to kindling, then crashing over Olbia’s walls.
Mathinna was frozen with horror. She could feel the screaming terror of the people within the tower,
within the houses below and in the little boats. She could feel the balance of nature tipping as if a jagged
piece of night had suddenly ripped through the curtain of day. It made her so sick that she fell sideways
to the ground.
The moment her sickness passed she thought of Shara.
What had she done? What would happen to her now?— and to Garroway’s baby within her womb?
Mathinna dragged herself upright and staggered toward the others. Shara was convulsing on the ground.
Jagamar, that worthless man, stood uselessly over her, hands on his face. The baby! The last reminder of
her son Garroway—what if it were lost? Mathinna threw herself down beside Shara.
The young woman was choking and clawing at the air. Suddenly, with a last terrified gasp, she went
limp.
“What’s happening?” cried Jagamar, horrified.
“You fool!” screamed Mathinna, punching at Jagamar. She gathered Shara in her arms. She could
feel the tiny half-formed child within her writhing in distress.
Shara’s eyes had flown open again. Once more she was convulsed, struggling and pawing at the air.
There was nothing Mathinna could do for her but let things run their course. But the baby… Mathinna put
her hand firmly on Shara’s belly and, using what felt like the last of her strength, tried to calm the unborn
child and bind it safe within.
“What’s happening?” cried Jagamar, grabbing Math-inna’s arm.
 “Let me go, you fool. What did you think you were doing here? What possessed you? Now she must
suffer every death she caused.”
“It wasn’t enough to put Gorice in the Spirit Cave. He killed three Tari, the dirty outlander,” shouted
Jagamar. “Death is the only thing enough for—”
“Can’t you see that the judgment of the life spirit would have been worse than death? To live on with
the knowledge of your own wrongdoing?” Mathinna was so angry she resorted to violence, hitting him on
the shin. “How can you understand so little of the life spirit? He would have suffered as she will suffer
now. She will experience every single death she caused one by one.”
It was difficult to calm the unborn child when she herself was so furious.
“ ‘One by one,’ ” echoed Jagamar in a horrified voice. “We didn’t realize it would be one by one.”
“Your ignorance never ceases to amaze me,” Mathinna snarled between clenched teeth. “How could
you even contemplate causing so much destruction? The two of you must have killed over one hundred
people! Oh, my little child,” she crooned to the baby in Shara’s womb. “Be calm!”
“They deserved to die. They stood by while…”
“What?… Servants, children, fisherfolk? Prisoners in the dungeons? Are you insane? What say did
they have in the madness of their leader? Of what horror is your mind made, Jagamar? What kind of Tari
are you?” Shara collapsed limply again, leaving Mathinna free to look up.
As she did so she saw something glittering on the ground beside Shara. She snatched it up. It was a