"Martha Wells - Wheel of the Infinite" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wells Martha)

the wide road. The damp air clung to her skin and she felt badly in need of a bath. The universe didn’t
seem in any great need of support, but perhaps she wasn’t as attuned to it as she used to be. She
couldn’t tell if the uneasiness she felt was inside or outside of herself. You are getting old. Your soul
wasn’t so divided in your youth, a nagging voice said. Yes, she told it ruefully, much easier to do
damage with a whole soul.
This stretch of the Great Road, leading deeper into the well-occupied outskirts of Duvalpore, was
fairly safe from bandits and they weren’t alone on it. A large wagontrain of merchants was only a few
hundred yards ahead of them, and single wagons or small groups of travellers had passed them several
times throughout the morning. They were moving into the country where what had been brackish
swamplands had been drained and brought back to life by freshwater canals to make the rice-growing
land that supported the capital. Duvalpore was a city of water: canals, barays, moats, all necessary to
support life during the dry season. It still surprised her how much she was looking forward to seeing it
again.
Old Mali elbowed her in the side, and Maskelle said, “I know, I know. I saw him an hour ago.” Of
course, he was closer this time, standing next to the milestone near a stand of rain trees, looking up the
road.
The swordsman had been pacing them all morning, just in the shadow of the jungle. He had stayed
near their wagons all night, a silent companion to Maskelle’s lonely vigil. He hadn’t slept either, and he
hadn’t tried to approach her, though she felt reasonably certain he had been conscious of her presence.
He had kept moving most of the night, perhaps to keep himself awake, making a wide circuit around their
camp almost as if he was on watch too. Near dawn she had watched him strip and wash in the temple’s
baray, an act of irreverence that would have shocked the priests and that Maskelle regarded with wry
amusement. Or maybe her reaction to it was what she found amusing. The Court would consider her past
all that, but obviously her body still thought she was twenty.
Old Mali made a lewd noise and Maskelle became aware she was staring. She eyed the old woman
sardonically. “Don’t be disgusting. I’m a priestess, remember?” This sent Old Mali into such paroxysms
of laughter Maskelle had to pound the old woman on the back before she choked.



The rain didn’t return, except for a misting drizzle in the late morning, making Maskelle wonder how
this luck was to be paid for later.
In the late afternoon the Great Road met the Great Canal, which it would parallel for the rest of the
way into Duvalpore. The jungle gave way to a plantation of large-leafed breadfruit trees, papaya and
banana, and a large outpost with two- and three-storied wooden buildings that went up to the bank of
the canal and extended over it to the other side. Maskelle stood up on the wagon seat and shaded her
eyes. There was a large passenger barge moored to the pilings and several smaller trading or fishing
boats bobbed on the still-swollen waters. It wasn’t as bad as the untamed upper river, but it still didn’t
look good, and many of the boats were obviously waiting until the water level dropped.
There were many signs of normal activity: boatmen lounging on the steps to the canal near the crates
and barrels of offloaded cargo, boys and girls on the bridges under the outpost checking the fish traps,
and a large group of colorfully dressed people sitting down to a meal on one of the balconies overhanging
the water. The merchants’ wagons that had been ahead of them all day had drawn up on the trampled
ground near the outpost, and there were several light, fast-travelling wagons there also, including one
bearing the symbol of the Imperial Mail.
Rastim jumped down from his wagon and came back to consult with her. “This looks all right, hey?”
he said hopefully.
She hesitated. She had wanted to press on to the temple of Illsat Keo, which was within the city’s
outermost boundary, but it was a few more hours of travel at least. Over the years she had grown used
to avoiding people; she had no intention of delivering any innocent bystanders to her curse, and she knew