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

Rislyn was very still. Then: "Papa? Did they all get tangled up? The colors, I mean."

This was what he'd been waiting for. But he didn't have to answer. Jihan did it for him.

"If they did, then the Goddess would've done just what Granda did and untangled them. Remember?"

"IЧI think so. It was all like you said about the dragons, PapaЧhundreds of colors. But thenЧ" She trembled slightly. "It hurt before Granda was there with me. Why did it hurt?"

"Because some of those colors were yours," Pol explained gently. "Do you remember the big weaving of light?"

She nodded. "It was beautiful."

"Part of it was you. I was there, and Meath, and Hollis, and Granda Sioned, and everyone who loves you. But the Vellant'im tried to use iron against us. I know it hurt, sweeting. That's what iron does to a Sunrunner. But your Granda is very clever, and very powerful, and sheЧ"

"Oh, she is, isn't she, Papa?" Jihan exclaimed. "I felt that more than I felt any hurt. It was wonderfulЧall her colors, and so strong and brightЧ"

"Your grandmother is a very skilled faradhi" Pol agreed.

"More than Lord Andry?" Jihan answered her own question. "Well, she'd have to beЧshe's older, and learned from Lady Andrade, and everybody knows she took lessons from the Goddess herself. Uncle Chay said so. I heard him."

Pol bit back a smile, imagining the tone of voice Chay had used to make that pronouncement. "That's the rumor. But the point is that you mustn't be afraid of your colors, or anyone else's. They're the Goddess' gift to Sunrunners, just like they were to the dragons."

Jihan gave him a tolerant look. "You didn't have to tell that big long story to make us understand that, Papa."

Pol silently beseeched that selfsame Goddess for the gift of whatever combination of patience, wisdom, and sheer long-suffering endurance would allow him to survive this child. "But it was a good story just the same," he told her, and she nodded. "All right, time for bed. Your mother will have my hide if she comes in and we're still chattering like birds at the Storm God's Spring Court." He tucked in the coverlet and bent to kiss themЧstartled and worried when Rislyn flung her arms around his neck. "It's all right, my hatchling," he murmured, hugging her tightly. "Everything's all right." "PapaЧ" "Yes, love?"

"I'm not afraid of the colors," she whispered against his cheek, still clinging to him. "ButЧbut sometimes I don't like the sunlight anymore."

"Oh, Rislyn. . . ." He rocked her in his embrace, stricken, crooning to her. "You're safe, little one. I promise. Papa's here, and Mama, and Granda Sioned. The sunlight is just the sunlight, warm and soft. It can't hurt you. I promise that the colors and the sunlight will never hurt you."

She nodded, trusting him utterly. Easing her back onto the pillows beside her sister, he waited until both were asleep. Only then did he allow himself to begin counting how many Vellant'im he was going to kill for causing his little girl, his faradhi child, to fear the sunlight.

*

Jayachin stretched languidly and smiled. "Well, my Lord," she murmured, "that was the second time I've . . . entertained ... a highborn."

"Indeed?" Andry toyed with a handful of her long, lustrous blue-black hair. Who she spread her thighs for was of absolutely no interest to him, but her claim of another noble lover was mildly amusing. He decided to play along. "If I am only the second, then either all the others you've met were blind, or the first was less than impressive."

She sat up in bed, tossing her hair over one shoulder. "My Lord flatters me. Or insults me, I can't decide which. Do you believe I would lie with any man who asked?"

"Of course not."

"Just with any man powerful enough to advance my

interests."

"Your words, my dear, not mine."

But she was smiling down at him as she traced the muscles of his chest. "Still, you were thinking it. And think no less of me for it. We understand each other, my