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

of an Adept was a terrible thing.

Stile bid his final farewells, mounted Neysa, needing no
saddle or bridle, and they joined Clip. The two unicorns
trotted briskly out the gate. To an observer it would seem
Clip was conducting his sibling to the breeding site, as
required. The little bit of weight Neysa carried hardly
made a difference.

It was good to travel with his unicorn again. Stile was
not sure whether he could transport himself magically
from place to place. If that came under the heading of
changing his aspect before others, then probably he could;

if instead it came under the heading of healing or changing
himself, then he probably could not. So far he had deemed
it expedient not to experiment; magic gone wrong could be

Blue Adept 9

fatal. So he needed transportation, and Neysa was the best
he could ask for. She had been his first steed in this magic
frame, and his first true friend. His love of horses had
translated instantly to unicorns, for these creatures were
horse-^us: plus a musical hom that was also a devastating
weapon; plus special gaits and acrobatic abilities beyond the
imagination of any horse; plus human intelligence; plus the
ability to change shape. Yes, the unicorn was the creature
Stile had been searching tor all his life without realizing it
until he met one.

Neysa, in girl-form, had become his lover, before he had
met the Lady Blue and realized that his ultimate destiny
had to lie with his own kind. There had been some trouble
between Neysa and the Lady Blue at first; but now as oath-
friend to the Blue Adept, the unicorn needed no further
reassurance. In this magic frame, friendship transcended
mere male-female relations, and an oath of friendship was
the most binding commitment of all.

It was ironic that now that Neysa could achieve her
fondest wishЧto have her own foalЧthat oath of friend-
ship interfered. Neysa's logic was probably correct; Stile
did need her to protect him from the pitfalls of this barely
familiar world until he could deal with his secret enemy.
Unicorns were immune to most magic; only Adept-class
spells could pass their threshold. Stile had reason to believe
his enemy was an Adept; his own Adept magic, buttressed
by the protective ambience of the unicorn, should safe-
guard him against even that level. As the Lady Blue had