"Rawn, Melanie - Dragon Star 03 - Skybowl" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

"Antoun told me on sunlight. He and I have known each other a long time. I thank you for what you said in Rohan's memory, but I don't want to talk about him, Andry. It hurts too much."
"Forgive me."
"Nothing to forgive." She stared into the flames for a moment, banishing memory of other Fire.
Andry began, "I should tell you what happened with Meiglan."
"Alasen saw most of it. That can wait. We have things to do, you and I. Now. Tonight. Pve been looking on starlight, but there's nothing. I should have thought of this when we first learned she was missing, butЧ" She shrugged. "I'm as stupid as the next person. My only defense is that it's not something we Sunrunners use often and I'm not very good at it. Pol might be able to do this, but he's in no state to make the attempt." She glanced up with a sardonic smile.
50 Melanie Rawn
"Seems perfectly calm and rational, doesn't he? If a trifle abrupt. He's treading a sword edge, Andry, slicing himself with every step. Frankly, I don't think he's capable of what I have in mind. But you are."
Rising, she went to the table by the windows and returned with a wide, polished silver bowl half-full of water and a surgeon's knife.
"Chayla's," she said.
Comprehension gleamed in his eyes. "You're going to find her with a Star Scroll spell."
"No, you are."
He frowned. "Why not one of the others?"
"Maarken? Hollis?" Shaking her head, she set the bowl and knife on a low stool and hitched her chair closer to his. "They're on the same edge Pol is. Your mother's not strong enough, your daughter is untrained, and why should I use Meath with his six rings when I have the Lord of Goddess Keep with ten?"
"What about you?"
"As I said, I'm not much good at it." She hesitated, then decided to tell him the truth. "And it has to be your work."
Andry pursed his lips. "I can see where it would benefit me, to be the one to find her. But why should you make the effort for my sake?"
"It benefits the Lord of Goddess Keep," she corrected. "Chayla's uncle doesn't matter. It's what you are that means something right now, not who."
"It must be seen that I use my power on everyone's behalf," he interpreted.
"Seen by the Vellant'im," she agreed. "And by Pol." She smiled as startlement scrawled across his face. "Do you know what he keeps telling me? How much he needs me. But not as his mother. He needs the Sunrunner High Princess. Well, that dear lady is every bit a manipulative witch. She has to be. If you're the one to lead us to Chayla, then in spite of what he may feel for you personally, he'll have to acknowledge you're on his side and he needs you. It might be that once he gets that past his craw, you two will be able to work together as you ought."
"As long as I don't rub his nose in it," Andry said. "You trust me not to?"
"I trust that you love your home and family more than
SKYBOWL
51
you love your own pride," she answered forthrightly. "I'll allow you yours. Let Pol have his. That's all I ask."
"There's more, though. You learned from Andrade, there must be more."
"We both learned from AndradeЧand very well, too, I'd say. Wouldn't you?" Sioned smiled briefly. "Rohan used to tell me that the difference between him and her was that although he used people, too, it was only to do what they would have done themselves anyway. What their own instincts would have led them to if only they'd thought of it first."
"As you're doing with me tonight. I like Rohan's way better." He smiled back. "What's the rest of it, Sioned?"
"All right, yes. There's something else." She leaned forward, fingers tightly laced. "When it comes timeЧand don't ask what I mean, I'm not sure myselfЧyou're going to have to give over control to him." She saw Andry's shoulders stiffen. "He's High Prince," she insisted. "Unless you want to be, and I know damned well you don't, it must be his work. By doing what I hope you'll do tonight, he won't just take your gifts and use themЧand he could, you know. He saw me do it at Stronghold. He's a quick learner. But for his own sake, he can't be allowed to do that. He must treat you with the respect you deserve."
"Allowing us both our pride?" Andry leaned back in his chair and crossed long legs. "Very well, then, I'll be just as honest with you. This elaborate emotional game isn't necessary. I promised Hollis that Pol and I won't carve each other up into little pieces. We'd be killing my brother."
Her turn to be startled, knowing she shouldn't be. As their love for Sorin had kept them civil to each other for so long, now their love for Maarken would do the same.
"Andry." She held the bowl out to him. "Find her."
His rings clicked softly against the silver as he cradled it in his hands. Sioned held the thin, curving surgical knife between two fingers, hoping not to leave too great a trace of herself, and slid it into the water. It very nearly vanished on the wide, flat bottom of the bowl.
Actually, she had lied some. Pol was perfectly capable of thisЧand, as it was a diarmadhi spell, he would be better at it than Andry. The rest, however, was true. She understood her husband's son and her husband's nephew as if they had both been born of her own body and blood.
52
Melanie Rawn
Still, she wondered what Andry was going to say when he found out who and what Pol really was. Cami's mirror made that discovery certain. Ah, well; worry about it when it happens, she told herself.
"I'm not getting anything." Andry's brows nearly met over his nose with the ferocity of his scowl. "Damn it, I've done this beforeЧ"
She thought for a moment, then suggested, "Too many other kinds of light? I shut the curtains to moons and stars, but maybe the hearth is distracting you."
He glanced at the flames and winced. "You may have something there. It hurts my eyes." After a slight pause, he said, "It's not just fire, is it?"
"We're a little short on trees to burn." Obligingly, she doused the Fires of her making, from the candle branch near the bed to the hearth. A reflexive, wary glance at her hand in the darkness showed her no emerald glow pulsing in precise rhythm to her heartbeat. That was something she would prefer not to explain to anyone until she could explain it to herself.
But there was a glistening in the room now, coming from the bowl in Andry's hands. He had called Fire into the Water, and it lit her heart to pity for his tired face.
"There, that's got it," he murmured. "Much better. Now to focus on Chayla through her knifeЧ"
All at once his body shuddered convulsively and he cried out. The Fire vanished from between his hands. Sioned relit the hearth instantly. Andry was shaking, sweat standing out on his forehead and upper lip.
Sioned snatched the bowl from him and put it on the rug. Quickly she poured wine and made him drink, then smoothed his hair and waited for sense to return to his eyes.
"Goddess," he whispered as color seeped back into his face. "I've never felt anything like that in all my life."
"What was it? Is Chayla in pain?"
"NoЧit was that damned knife." He looked up, a rueful twist to his mouth. "I know it should be something used often by the person you're looking for, but couldn't you have chosen an earring or a button? That thing's brutal, Sioned."
She sat down very hard in her chair. "AndryЧit never even occurred to me."
"Me, either." He stared into the bowl at his feet. "It was the oddest feeling. Pain, as if the knife had cut into me,
SKYBOWL