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

"Maarken played tyrannical Battle Commander and ordered him to stay put. His intent was to hobble around tending the wounded."
"He's better, then." Andry paused. "Pol, I have to thank you for what you did for Maarken."
"Oh, yes," Pol replied bitterly. "I did a lot. I didn't see the bastard in time to preventЧ"
"I used to watch you practice at swords, you know," Andry interrupted. "You were only fourteen but already good. Maarken wouldn't have had you at his back if you weren't. You aren't to blame for what he lost any more than I am for what you lost."
Pol was quiet for a long time. Then he drained his cup and said, "Goddess, aren't we tender of each other today? Sorry
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about this, thank you for thatЧdoes it make you as uneasy as it does me?"
"Yes," he answered candidly. "But we haven't gotten to the difficult parts yet, have we? We've stuck to what's already, happened, the things we can't change. We do share the same kind of insanity, cousinЧneither of us crazy enough to fight over a bone that's picked clean."
"The meat lies elsewhere," Pol agreed. Over his bent knee he regarded Andry with clear, blue-green eyes. "Well, shall we carve itЧor each other?"
Andry took his irritation by the throat and strangled it. Calm and composed, he said, "I made a promise to Hollis, for Maarken's sake. You'll hear no dissent from the Lord of Goddess Keep unless what the High Prince plans would harm the Sunrunners."
"For Maarken's sake," Pol agreed.
They regarded each other for a time in perfect understanding. Both knew how binding their promise wasЧand how fragile. They had been brought together by tragedies. They shared immediate common goals. But sooner or later one of them would make a chance remark, and all the old enmity would boil up again.
And if it came to the point where Andry's power rivaled Pol'sЧ
"When I rode in," Andry heard himself say, "I half-expectedЧand don't hear this wrongЧbut I kept looking around for Rohan."
Grief flickered in blue-green eyes. "So do I. They say 'High Prince' and I keep looking for my father. You were lucky, in a way, when you took over Goddess Keep. People have been calling you 'my lord' all your life."
"Yes, but it was a year before I connected that note in their voices with the Lord of Goddess Keep, and still longer before I stopped listening for someone to say 'Lady Andrade.' "
Pol smiledЧhis father's wry and charming smile, but without Rohan's gentleness. "It's Hell having to be a grown-up, isn't it? Do you remember when we were children, and the only thing we worried about was whether we could get somebody clever to be our dragon? Which reminds me, whatever you do, don't let Jihan cozen you into that, or anything else!"
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Melanie Rawn
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"I hear from Tobren that she calls Fire rather enthusiastically."
"Meath says he'll teach her not to burn the castle down." "Perhaps a lesson from the Lord of Goddess Keep would
help."
Pol's head tilted curiously. "You'd teach her? And the
others?"
"You mean so far in advance of when tradition says they ought to learn?" Andry shrugged. "I've been thinking about that for several years. Why should we wait to show Sunrunner children what they are, what they can do and become? But there are very good arguments on both sides. If they learn young, they're easy with what they are. They grow up knowingЧthe way you grew up knowing you were to be High Prince."
"And now that I am, it's not easyЧbut I understand what
you mean."
"Your mother is a case in point, about knowing she was a Sunrunner. She didn'tЧor, rather, she knew but didn't dare say anything. Her brother's wife didn't exactly appreciate the prospect of a Sunrunner in the family."
"Yes, but my late Aunt Wisla's appreciation of becoming Princess of Syr because of the family Sunrunner was truly profound," Pol remarked, and all at once Andry understood what differenced him from Rohan: cynicism.
"Pol, how many children hide and deny what they are because they're afraid? That weighs heavily in my mind, and it makes me want to find these people as young as possible. ButЧ"
"But then there are the ones like my JihanЧpower to spare and very little restraint in using it." He paused while Kierun filled his cup again. "Doesn't that argue for teaching them the ethic while they're young?"
"Of course. But it's a long process, you know, and forcing them to grow up too soon isn't a wise move. I look at what this war has done to Tobren, how hard it is to make her laugh...." He shook his head. "Teach them early and impose Sunrunner discipline on them, or wait until they've formed their own discipline of their own choice? It's an interesting problem."
"And yours," Pol said with obvious relief. "Let me know how you feel about it once you've spent some time teaching Jihan. I'm betting you'll come down on the side of waiting.
A hatchling like that is a handful enough without adding Sunrunner training to it"
It was no time for Andry to reveal that he knew Jihan was no Sunrunner. In fact, he had every intention of teaching the child; the diarmadhi taint would be countered by proper faradhi disciplines, as it had been in Riyan and Torien and several others. The younger the better, as far as such people were concerned.
But he kept all of it from his face and eyes, and chuckled instead. "I admit the prospect of being knee-deep in precocious children is an appalling one. They'd bring the walls of Goddess Keep down around our ears."
"Speaking of whichЧwhat do you think the Vellant'im are waiting for? I mean, their ships are just sitting off the coast, staring at the towers."
Andry grunted. "I hope winter fog wraps them closer than a Giladan wool blanket and they all ram into each other and sink. Whatever they come up with, Torien can deal with it."
"He knows how to work the ros 'salath ?" There was nothing but honest curiosity in the question.
"Certainly."
"I'd be interested in your opinion of what we did at Stronghold," Pol continued. "Maarken told you some of it, I'm sure, but he wasn't included in the working. Ask my mother. Between you, you should be able to figure out a way to use it more effectively."
"We?"
"Me." That smile againЧbut this time instead of cynicism there was the gleaming of a dragon's teeth. "But you expected that, Andry."
"Yes, I did." He leaned forward, his ten rings and wrist cuffs shining as he flattened his palms on the table. It was like surcease from chronic pain to feel them against his flesh again. "I will do all I can, and that includes protecting my brother from anything you and I may disagree about. But I will not be ordered. And you expected that, Pol."
"Certainly," he echoed. "We understand each other, my Lord."
"We do, your grace."
On this note of not-quite-sweetest harmony, Meath entered the room without bothering to knock. His graying hair was windblown as a boy's, his eyes alight and nearly hidden by the width of his grin.