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

"It does." Cluthine took the token from her palm. "And we haven't anything else to go on. I'll leave tomorrow afternoon."

Mevita sighed. "My husband is going to have me slain for this."

"We've already had this argument," Cluthine said impatiently. "Naydra's not strong enoughЧ"

"What you mean is I'm too old," the princess corrected regretfully. "Twenty-two winters your senior, which ought to make me wise enough not to wish I could go in your place."

"I'm the logical choice," Mevita began.

"You have a child," Cluthine interrupted. "Who do you suggest we send? Rialt? His outburst the night of the ritual made him too visible. Everyone's watching him now to see what excitement he'll provide next. No, it has to be me. There's no one else." She closed her fingers around the token.

Mevita nodded reluctantly. "We've been together in here too long. You leave first and look in on Polev. I'll stay a while and tell Naydra everything Tilal must know. She can give you the particulars tomorrow morning, Thina, when you go shopping."

Naydra was frowning. "You haven't said how you're going to get a horse from the stables and go out riding by yourself."

"Aurar does itЧand she's not even a Lady of Mead-owlord. I am. Prince Clutha was my grandfather. It's about time I got some use of it."

"Inheritance is a chancy thing," Naydra remarked mildly. "Mine comes from High Princes and various athr'im of the VereschЧand I can't say that I've ever gotten any use of it at all."

*

Tobin was asleep. Chay listened to her even, steady breathing for a few moments, thinking that there was no sweeter sound in all the world, then quietly closed the bedchamber door and returned to the anteroom.

"Just as I left her," he said to Betheyn, and lowered himself into a soft chair. "If I had any sense, I'd be tired enough to join her."

"You're overtired. Shall I ring for wine to help you relax?"

"No, but you can stay and talk to me for a while, daughter."

Settling into a chair opposite his, she smiled her thanks for the fondness. "You miss that, don't you? Sharing thoughts and ideas back and forth."

"If not Tobin, then Rohan, and if not him, then Sioned. But it frustrates Tobin not to be able to talk as fluently as she used to. Rohan's gone. And SionedЧ" He rubbed a hand over his face. "I'd bother Maarken or Hollis, but they're down at the garrison. So you're the lucky victim, my dear."

"That's the second time you've used that word tonight. 'Victim.' "

"Is it? I suppose so. Perhaps I feel that way myself. I'm too old for this, Beth. And. . . ." He struggled with it. "It's just that everything is so dark. As if Rohan took all hope and light with him." Shaking his head, he finished, "Forgive me. The self-pity of an old man who's outlived his usefulness."

"Nobody could have stopped Pol from saying what he did." Beth toyed with the fringes of a cushion on her lap. "But he found some of the right words toward the end. He just needs time. His light is different from his father's."

"If he'd only stop trying to be his father. ..."

"I think he's starting to learn that he can't. Didn't Prince Rohan, when he first came to rule?"

Chay nodded, his eyes misty with reminiscence. "It's been so long ago I'd forgotten. But Pol can't afford to make mistakes. And he was trained from the beginning to be High Prince."

"Maarken has always known he'd inherit your position as Battle Commander one dayЧbut I doubt he ever thought he'd have to lead an army. Don't tell him I said this, but I'm surprised he hasn't made any serious mistakes."

He snorted. "Maarken is an unnatural son. He and I think exactly alike. It's the duty of the younger genera-