Pilgrim. Sara Douglass

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ find what lies at the foot of the Sacred Lakes,” Leagh said, “in order to resurrect one of their number, the worst of all. Qeteb, the Midday Demon.”

      Faraday nodded. “The answer to all our woes must lie at the foot of the Sacred Lakes. All I know is that Drago and I must go to the Cauldron Lake, as soon as we can. What is there needs to speak with Drago.”

      Everyone, including Drago, started to speak at once, but Faraday hushed them.

      “I will take Drago there, and once we get back … well … once we get back I hope that we will have some answer to our current dilemma.”

      “Cauldron Lake?” Zared said. “But that is far south. It will take you days to get —”

      “Seven or eight days to get there and back,” Faraday said.

      “What?” Zared exploded. “Wait! A week? Gods, Faraday! Tencendor lies ravaged and you say, ‘Sit here and smile and wait a week’.”

      “Zared,” Leagh said, glancing at Faraday. “What can we do but wait? Where can we go? We cannot move beyond the shelter of this forest for more than a few hours at a time, and that is no time to get an army anywhere. We must wait. Drago — what will you be able to tell us when you get back?”

      “Leagh, I don’t know. I am sorry.”

      Zared sighed, accepting. Leagh was right. They needed some answers. “Well, at least take two of our best horses. You might as well move as fast as you can.”

      Faraday laughed. “I thank you, Zared, but no. My two donkeys can carry us, and they know the way well enough.”

      Faraday sat awake late into the night, watching as Tencendor’s army slept curled up in blankets or wings in an unmoving ocean spreading into the unseeable distance.

      Drago lay close to her, and she reached out, hesitated, then touched his cheek briefly.

      He did not stir.

      She sighed, and turned her gaze to the forest canopy, needing to sleep, but needing more to think. She was appalled by the scene earlier, and the face of hatred Axis had chosen to show Drago.

      All Axis could see in Drago was the malevolent infant, using every power he had to try to put Caelum away so that he, DragonStar, could assume the name and privileges of StarSon. Faraday could hardly blame Axis and Azhure, and certainly not Caelum, for their distrust of Drago — but it was going to make things difficult. Very difficult.

      At that thought Faraday almost smiled. Here she was fretting at the fact that Drago’s parents did not welcome the prodigal son with open arms and tears of joy, when beyond the trees ravaged such misery that SunSoar quarrels paled into insignificance.

      But to counter the misery there was Drago. And somewhere, secreted within his craft, there was Noah. Between them, those two must somehow prove the saving of Tencendor.

      Faraday let her thoughts drift for a while, content to listen to the sounds of the sleeping camp. Somewhere a horse moved, and snorted, and a soldier spoke quietly to it. The sound of the man soothing the horse made Faraday think, for no particular reason, of the stunning moment when Sicarius had leapt to the aid of Drago. Drago? Faraday knew how devoted those hounds, and especially Sicarius, had always been to Azhure, but she also remembered that for thousands of years they had run with the Sentinel, Jack, and she wondered if their origins lay not in Icarii magic, but deep below the Sacred Lakes.

      Perhaps no wonder, then, that Sicarius had leapt to Drago’s defence.

      There was a slight movement at her side, breaking Faraday’s thoughts.

      She looked down. Drago had rolled a little closer, and now lay with his head propped up on a hand.

      “Faraday — what did I come through the Star Gate as? You transformed me somehow, back to this form … but what did I come through the Star Gate as?”

      “You came through as a sack of skin wrapped about some bones.”

      A sack, he thought … an empty sack, just waiting to be filled.

      “And the rosewood staff was with me?”

      “Yes. You insisted on searching for it before you would let me drag you from the Chamber.”

      Drago frowned slightly. “I can remember almost nothing of the Star Gate Chamber, or the first few hours afterwards. Everything, until I woke refreshed in the cart, is blurred and indistinct.”

      Faraday remained silent, content to let Drago think.

      “You evaded Axis’ questions about the Sceptre very nicely,” he said finally. “You know the staff is the Sceptre.”

      “Probably.”

      “I wanted to give it to Caelum. Damn it, Faraday, I stole it. It belongs to him, and he needs it back.”

      She tilted her head very slightly so he could not read her eyes, and again remained silent.

      “When Axis taxed me about the Sceptre I looked for the staff, intending to hand it to Caelum. But it had disappeared. Later, hours after Caelum and our parents had gone, I chanced upon it. Faraday, do you know where it was?”

      She turned her face back to him again. “No.”

      “It was in the blue cart.”

      “It has its own purpose, Drago. And, undoubtedly, it did not want to be handed back to Caelum.”

      He sighed and rolled onto his back, staring at the forest canopy far above. “Like all beautiful things,” he said, and glanced at Faraday, “I do not understand it.”

      She bit down a grin, but he saw it anyway, and smiled himself.

      “Why do you help me, Faraday? Why were you there in the Star Gate Chamber, waiting for me?”

      “Someone needed to believe in you. I found that no hard task.”

      “You evade very well.”

      “It comes naturally to me.”

      Drago smiled again. He did not know why Faraday was with him, or how long she would stay, but he hoped it would be a while yet. It was a vastly new and immensely warm feeling to have such a beautiful woman walk by his side and say softly at night, “I believe in you.”

      Drago’s grin subsided and he silently chastised himself for romanticizing Faraday’s motives. It was obvious she knew some secret of Cauldron Lake, and it was that knowledge, or that secret, that kept her by his side. Like himself, she wanted only to aid the land, in any way she could, and at the moment she apparently felt the best way was to continue at his side.

      He felt her fingers at his neck, gently feeling the bandage, and he looked at her. Gods, she was beautiful.

      “Does the wound hurt?” she asked, trying to divert his attention.

      “A little.”

      She drew СКАЧАТЬ