"Anthony, Piers - Adept - 02 - Blue Adept" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

his enemy and secured his position, he intended to do some
wider explorations. Who could guess what wonders might
lie beyond these horizons?

They moved west for two hours, covering twenty miles.
This frame used the archaic, magic-ridden units of mea-
surement, and Stile was still schooling himself in them.
Twenty miles was roughly thirty-two kilometers in his
more familiar terms. Stile could have covered a similar
distance in similar time himself, for he was among other
things a runner of marathons. But for him it would have
meant a great effort, depleting his resources for days; for
these animals it was merely pleasant light exercise. Uni-

Blue Adept 11

corns could travel twice this speed, sustained, when they
had to, and faster yet for shorter distances.

Now the sun was descending, getting in their eyes. It was
time to graze. Unicorns, like horses, were not simple run-
ning machines; they had to spend a good deal of their time
eating. Stile could have conjured grain for them, but actu-
ally they preferred to find their own, being stubbornly in-
dependent beasts, and they rested while grazing. Neysa
slowed, found a patch of bare rock, and relieved herself in
the equine manner at its fringe. This covered any sound
Stile might make as he dismounted. Then she wandered
on, grazing the rich grass, ignoring him though she knew
exactly where he was. She was very good at this sort of
thing; no observer would realize that an invisible man was
with her, and the rock concealed any footprints he made.

Stile had brought his own supplies, of course; the Lady
Blue had efficiently seen to that. No sense requiring him to
make himself obvious by performing unnecessary magic to
fetch food, apart from the general caution against wasting
one-shot spells. He would sit on the rock and eat, quietly.

Stile levered himself down, careful not to put strain on
his knees. Knees, as he had learned the hard way, did not
readily heal. Magic might repair them, but he could not
operate on himself and did not as yet trust the task to any
other Adept. Suppose the Adept he asked happened to be
the one who wanted to kill him? He could get along; his
knees only hurt when flexed almost double. He could still
walk, run and ride comfortably. His former abilities as an
acrobat had suffered, but there was still a great deal he
could do without flexing his knees that far.