"Bill Fawcett & Brian Thomsen - Masters of Fantasy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fawcett Bill)

be loved."
Now, Alain knew his blunt-spoken mother well enough to read between the lines. Shockingly blunt in
this case . . . except . . . well Felice had not made a love-match with King Chalinel; she cared deeply for
him, but theirs had been a marriage made in the Council chamber. She knew very well that the way to
cement the loyalty of a powerful noble house was to marry into it; the way to ensure a foreign alliance
was to send (or send for) a bride or groom. Neither she nor the King would force one of their children
into a marriage he or she did not want; they would consent to any marriage, even to a beggar, where love
was. But this way . . . if an alliance had to be made, there would be someone available to make it at the
altar.
Vanyel Ashkevron had made his terrible sacrifice decades ago; Queen Elspeth was Alain's great-great-
grandmother. Valdemar's borders had expanded as more and more independent nobles sought to come
under the banner of those who had defeated the Karsites. Those noblesтАФsome no better than robber-
baronsтАФhad no traditional ties to the Valdemaran throne, and no real understanding of what Heralds
(the backbone of Valdemaran authority) were and did. One of the obvious solutions was Felice's. After
all, it had worked for her family. Her father had gone from an uneasy ally to a doting grandfather who
would no more dream of a disloyal thought than jump off the top of his own manor.
And all of his grandchildrenтАФChosen. That truly brought it home to him and every one of his people
what Heralds were and what they did. The lesson was painless and thorough, and the Baron soon was
accustomed to having white-clad Heralds coming and going on his lands.
Both Heralds' Collegium and Valdemar had benefited by the arranged marriage with FeliceтАФfor now
eleven other Heralds, whose skills would be useful outside the capitol, would be freed up by Felice's
brood for those other duties while the Princes and Princesses took over.
All of the ten eldest had done well in their classes. Alain and his twin sister Alara had run through the
Collegium curriculum like a hot needle through ice. How not? They'd listened to ten siblings as they
recited their lessons, they'd practiced weapons-work and archery with ten older siblings, watched and
listened with ten siblings. King Chalinel often said that intelligence in the family just kept increasing
with each set of children and culminated with Alain and Alara. Alain didn't know about thatтАФall of his
sibs were clever . . .
:But you and Alara made it through a year early, and Kristen, Kole, and Katen lagged behind because
they lost a year to the scarlet fever. With five of you going into Internship at once, there was something
of a problem, since we don't like to Intern relatives with relatives,: said Vedalia.
Which was, of course, why he was out on Circuit in the wilderness. No one wanted to risk the health of
the triplets after that near-miss with fever, which meant they had to stay within the confines of Haven.
And there were only four Haven Internships available. The four Haven Internships had gone to his other
siblings, yes, because of the triplets' uncertain health, but also because they all had Gifts that were useful

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 - Chapter 2

in those internships. To create a new position just for Alain would have been wrongтАФ
:Yes, well my so-called Gift probably had something to do with why I'm out here, on the edge of the
Kingdom, and not somewhere else,: Alain observed.
Vedalia's tone turned sharp. :There is nothing wrong with your Gift,: he said. :It's as strong as anyone in
the Collegium has got, and stronger than your sister's.:
:And a fat lot of good Animal Mindspeech would have been, Interning with the Lord-Martial's Herald,:
he retorted. :What would I do, interrogate the Cavalry horses? What else can I do? Nothing that a
weakly Gifted Herald can't. I don't even have enough ordinary Mindspeech to talk to Herald
StedrelтАФand he's got the strongest Mindspeech of any Herald anyone's ever heard of!: He couldn't help
it; a certain amount of bitterness crept into his thoughts. He hated not being able to MindSpeak other
HeraldsтАФwhen he could Hear a tree-hare chattering at ten leagues away.