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

trotted back to the castle. As they approached the gate they
shifted to human-form, becoming a handsome young man
and an elfishly small but also quite pretty woman. Stile
hurried down to meet them in the courtyard.

"A greeting. Adept, and a message from the Herd Stal-
lion," Clip said. He was holding hands with his sister,
somewhat to her mute embarrassment; he was more ex-
pressive than she. Both wore the garb of archaic Earth as
interpreted by nonhuman viewpoint, more or less matching
their natural equine colors.

"Thy greeting is welcome. Clip," Stile said. "And thy
message too, be it in peace."

"It is. Adept. The Stallion is pleased to summon Neysa
the Mare this season to be bred." He paused, then ap-
pended his own remark: "At long last."

"That's great!" Stile exclaimed. "After three seasons de-
nied, she will finally get her foal!"

Then he saw that Neysa was not reacting with the de-
light expected. Stile looked at her with concern. "Dost this
not please thee, oath-friend? I thought it was thy fondest
ambition toЧ"

Clip, too, was glancing at her with perplexity. "Sibling,
methought I bore great tidings."

Neysa averted her gaze. She was a well-formed girl an
inch or so shorter than StileЧa stature that appealed to
him though he knew this was foolish. She was the smallest
of mares, barely fourteen hands; any shorter and she
would have been classified as a pony: a member of the
equine Little Folk. Her human-form merely reflected this,
with only the tiny button-hom in her forehead signifying
her true nature.

Stile had long since learned to live with the fact that
most women and all men were taller than he, and of course

Blue Adept 3

Neysa was not human at all. That did not prevent her from
being his closest companion in ways both human and
equine. Though she could speak, she was not much on
verbal communication. Vivacity was not her way, though
she had a certain filly humor that manifested subtly on
occasion.