"Rawn, Melanie - Dragon Star 2 - Dragon Token" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

forbid it. You're coming with us to Feruche and that's final."

Chayla set her jaw, visibly preparing to do battle. Pol opened his mouth to make it an order of the High PrinceЧbut Walvis spoke first.

"You think you have no patients here who need you? Your grandmother looks so frail she might break. And what about Sioned?"

The very name sobered everyone. Swallowing hard, Pol turned to Chayla. "How is she?"

Dusty golden hair straggled around her face as she shook her head. "Meath stays with her. He tells her when to mount her horse and when to eat and when to sleepЧbut she doesn't, of that I'm sure. Jihan and Rislyn ride with her every so often, and she seems pleased to have them near. But she hasn't spoken a word."

"Perhaps if I spent some time with her. Told her what we're doing, that we're going to take back what's oursЧ"

"How?" Maarken asked. "Leave her alone, Pol. She needs time to grieve."

"What makes you think we have the time?"

"We have nothing but." Maarken held up one gloved hand, fingers folding in as he made each point. "Arlis and his fleet are trapped by winter storms at New Raetia. Kostas is dead and two seventeen-year-old boys command the army of Syr. Chiana sits in Swalekeep supplying the enemy. Tilal and Ostvel may or may not have to fight herЧand the Vellant'im at the same time. Riyan and Tallain have to finish off the Merida before they can join us. What can we do but wait and lick our wounds?"

Pol gazed at Maarken's fist, closed as if around a sword. But not yet. Not for a long while yet. "I keep having to admit that you're right," he said ruefully. "And you're ordered to remind me of that whenever I start talking nonsense again. But I do know one thing, Maarken. We have only a few battles left in us. Start thinking about how we can bring all the Vellant'im to one place and destroy them. We don't have the resources left to wage a long war."

"I agree," Walvis replied. "A place and a time of our choosing."

"With all our powers secure and to hand," Maarken added.

He couldn't help it. He said. "And how is Andry these days?"

Andry's brother looked him straight in the eye."I haven't the vaguest idea. Why don't you go Sunrunning and find out for yourself?"

Pol shrugged gracelessly. "No, thanks all the same."

"You may have to," Walvis said. "We might need his help."

"You might," Pol snapped. "I don't." Turning to Maarken again, he said, "When you see Hollis, tell her that I want her and Meath to figure out what happened at Stronghold during the working, and why, and what we can do to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"There's a lot we'll have to ask Sioned. She was in the primary position."

"There's a name for it in the Star ScrollЧdidn't she tell you? Ruskuvel."

Tired gray eyes narrowed as he translated it silently: leader, mind, sword. Walvis and Chayla didn't ask.

"I don't think you ought to bother her with it," Maarken said at last.

"Let her be," Chayla added. "Don't trouble her with things that have no meaning for her."

"No meaning?" Pol asked sharply.

"None. She's in shock, you seeЧas if she'd lost a limb. Something I've noticed since Remagev is that sometimes the wounded believe that an arm or leg is still there. When they look and find it gone, the pain begins anewЧ in what is no longer there. I think that's how it is with Sioned. As long as she doesn't look. . . ." She finished with a helpless shrug.

"Fifteen winters old," Maarken murmured, shaking his head.