"Juliet E. McKenna - Einarinn 4 - The Warrior's Bond" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKenna Juliet E)

often nigh on a level with the upstairs windows of its neighbour. The
wider-spaced houses of the upper town gave way to cramped and dirty lanes. By
the time we emerged on to the broad sweep of the quayside, a crowd was
assembling, drawn from unsavoury harbour taverns. Dockers were eager to earn
their ale money unloading the new arrivals, hawkers and whores keen to take
any advantage. I forced a way through those just avid for spectacle and Casuel
scurried close behind me.
'I've never seen the like, not magic used like that.' One man spoke across me,
awe mixed with uncertainty.
'And won't do again, I'd say,' agreed his friend, sounding relieved.
'I'll grant it was novelty enough but if they'd gone down, we'd have had some
wreck-sale.' A third was looking with greedy eyes at the tilted masts of the
ocean ship. 'Think of the salvage that would have washed ashore.'
I elbowed the would-be scavenger gull aside. With the list on the ship still
severe, the crew and dockers were fighting to secure sodden ropes running
slick and uncooperative round battered bollards. I wrenched on my own gloves
and added my weight to steady a hawser that two men were struggling-to make
safe. 'Casuel! Lend a hand, man!'
The double-headed bollards lining the quayside suddenly glowed and amber light
crackled in the air, startling profanity from the man beside me. I clutched
the cable in surprise myself; I hadn't intended Casuel use magic. Immobile
metal twisted and ducked beneath the ropes, black iron arms questing blindly
then looping themselves round the straining hemp before drawing back to stand
upright once more. Reeled in like a gaffed fish, the great ship lurched,
rolling upright to
smack hard into the side of the dock with a crash that reverberated round the
harbour. The vessel shivered from bow to stern with an ominous sound of
splintering.
'Nice work, Cas!' I dropped the rope and hurried along the quay, scanning the
crowded deck. 'Temar!' A sparely built young man by the stern castle looked
round at my hail, acknowledging me with a brief wave. 'We need to get your
people off, quick as you can.' The ship hung low and unbalanced in the water
and the damage Casuel had just done might finish what the storm had started.
Cargo could be recovered from the bottom of the harbour but I didn't want to
be dragging the dock for bodies.
A gangplank was hastily thrown out from the ship's rail but a flare of golden
radiance sent the dockers reaching for it recoiling in surprise. I turned to
see Casuel gesturing at the hovering wood, face pinched with pique. A path
instantly cleared between the mage and the ship and the crowd around Casuel
thinned noticeably.
Temar ignored the last remnants of magelight fading from the gangplank as he
hurried down to me. 'Ryshad!'
'I thought we were going to be fishing you out of the rock pools.' I gripped
his forearm in the archaic clasp he offered, noting that his fingers were no
longer the smooth white of the idle noble but almost as weathered and
calloused as my own.
His grip on my own arm tightened involuntarily and I felt the pressure of
muscles hardened by work. 'When that last wave hit, I did wonder if we would
surface on some shore of the Otherworld. Dastennin be thanked we made landfall
safely.' The accents of ancient Tormalin were still strong in Temar's voice