Corvus

Начало книги

As always, he halted on the crest of the last ridge. Leaning on his spear, he looked down in the gathering blue-shadowed dusk and something like a sigh ran out of him.

Before him, the land poured down in darkening folds and hollows until it met the flat shadow of the glen at the river-bottom. A flash of red there, as the river glanced up at the last light of the sun. Then the mountainsides all around seemed to crowd together as if huddling against the night, and the valley was blanked out, like a conjurer’s trick. But in the midst of that quiet darkness, he could see a light burning, steady and yellow.

The spear creaked under his weight. The leather straps of pack and shield dug into his shoulders. The heat of the day broke past him, a warm passage of air rushing down to fill up the cool darkness of the river-bottom below. He closed his eyes as the air kissed the glimmering sweat on his forehead, and turned, straightening.

Читать дальше →