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

Mevita flung the sheets onto the floor and whirled on him. "Don't be such a fool! If that's his aim, you can't stop him by sulking! You're right, I've no pride where my aims are concernedЧand right now I aim to do something before the Vellanti army arrives!"

"What are you talking about? What have you heard?"

"Not too proud to set your wife to spying for you, my lord?"

He ground his teeth. "I'm sorry. Tell me what you know."

"Swalekeep is being readied for warЧreally readied this time, not the half-hearted show Chiana put on all autumn. Naydra says the Vellant'im are expected any time nowЧwith Prince Tilal and Lord Ostvel camped not a day's ride to the west."

"Then it's as I expected," he muttered, beginning to pace the room. "They'll fight Chiana's battle for her. Whoever wins, she's safe."

"And you know who she'll be cheering for."

A bucket was in his way, filled with the ceiling's offering of last night's rain. He exercised massive restraint by not kicking it over.

"Well?" Mevita asked. "What are you waiting for? You're free now to come and go. So go!"

*

Rialt timed that afternoon's encounters as precisely as a battle commander sets a plan of attack. First he met Naydra "by chance" in the garden where she had taken Polev for some air. She stood with him, watching the child play with a litter of striped kittens, and they talked of the day's welcome break in the rain and how long the sunshine might last.

In between banalities she conveyed her information. Chiana and Rinhoel had been closeted in the former's chambers last evening. Naydra, restless and bored, had gone to Halian's private library for something to read. There, she found a steward shuffling maps. Her offer of assistance met with respectful thanks and a quick refusal. Too quick.

"I left after choosing a book, but I saw which maps he was interested in," she murmured. "Detailed drawings of the terrain for a hundred measures around SwalekeepЧ and the same for Dragon's Rest."

"I'm not surprised. The Vellant'im have taken Strong-

hold. Dragon's Rest is Pol's seat of authority. Due to be next. I thinkЧis that another rainstorm coming down from the north?"

Naydra appeared not to see the courtier who bowed to her on his way past. The man was not offended; he obviously didn't expect acknowledgment. Like Chiana, she was Roelstra's daughter, and he was beneath her notice. "I do hope not. Even when I'm snug in my own rooms, I feel drenched to the skin."

His next talk was with Cluthine, when he took his son back inside for an afternoon nap. Rinhoel had been bribing Polev lately with chess pieces to make him go away. It was the wrong tactic to use with a clever child who knew how far he could take his pestering. Polev had almost the whole set of white pieces now, and wanted to play with them.

"Later, my lamb," Cluthine said firmly, depriving him of a castle, two squires, and a Sunrunner.

"I want him to give me that dragon in Princess Chiana's room," Polev complained. "But he won't. It's gold with bright red eyesЧmuch better than this one." He gave Cluthine a little figure of carved and painted wood, scorning its outspread gilt wings.

"You shouldn't have bothered Prince Rinhoel in his mother's rooms," Rialt chided.

Polev shrugged. "He wasn't in his. And I wanted another piece."

"You really mustn't plague Rinhoel. One day he'll grow angry."

"He was today, when I asked for the gold dragon." "I can imagine," Rialt murmured. "Close your eyes, hatchling."

He sat with Cluthine in a window embrasure along the sunlit corridor outside her rooms, ostensibly to savor the warmth. Instead of the weather, the topic was Polev's schooling. By the time the shadows had moved a finger's width, Rialt had learned that Tilal had sent a messenger to Halian informing his fellow prince of his presence. Halian reacted with surprise and pleasure, but was puzzled that Tilal seemed to think there might be some dan-

ger to Swalekeep from the enemy. Chiana, echoing his sentiments, had cautioned that the place was already stuffed to the seams with refugees and there was no room to house an army. Halian's reply to Tilal was an invitation to camp outside the walls and come with Lord Ostvel to stay inside Swalekeep. "Which they must not do," Cluthine finished