"Tara K. Harper - Wolfwalker 5 - Silver Moons, Black Steel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harper Tara K)

no Randonnen was. She knew there were things he wanted to say, things to
which she must listen, regardless of her reluctance. тАЬYouтАЩve been on the
trail too long, Dione. YouтАЩve run too much with the wild wolves, too far
from your home. YouтАЩre beginning to forget how to step away from their
reality and back into your own world.тАЭ
Dion was silent for a long moment, watching the students as they struck and
blocked in two ragged lines while the drill to reed them back and forth. As
Batayon had said, their use of energy was obvious, external, and flat. They
knew they didnтАЩt face a real threat. None of their partners clawed at them
with desperate worlag jaws or starving badgerbear fangs. None of them
faced a raider whose only goal was to skewer their entrails on steel. Dion
felt herself clench when one student missed a block, even though his
partnerтАЩs kill-strike fell short.
She cursed herself as Batayon noted her instinctive tensing. Now even
strangers saw through her like a window. Batayon was right. She had been
drinking danger for too many years. It had become all she knew until she
breathed it like an animal, waiting always for the talon to strike, instantly
ready to dodge or hit back, knowing that the moonsтАФand the AriyensтАФ
could take what was left of her life at any time they focused on her again.
If she was honest with herself, she would admit that she had been riding to
avoid the Ariyen elders as much as to avoid admitting to her own inner
wounds. Those elders would not wait much longer to bring her back to
Ariye. The skills they wanted were in her hands, linked to Ariye through the
wolves and to the other wolfwalkers that she could hear in the gray, mental
packsong. For a moment, she indulged the sense of the Gray Ones so that it
washed through her brain like a murmur. Then, quietly, she drew back. For
months, there had been others in that howling, hunters who did not belong
to the wolves but who had somehow pierced the packsong. They were
seeking somethingтАФpossibly Dion herselfтАФand had flavored the gray with
urgency. She had faced enough predators that she could not mistake the
intent. But before, she had faced those hunters willingly; now she had
someone else to protect.
He followed her gaze to her belly. His voice was quiet. тАЬWhat will you
teach her, if you know only danger yourself?тАЭ
She stared at him for a long moment as he echoed her thoughts. Then she
nodded, a curiously courteous gesture that acknowledged the question, yet

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Silver Moons, Black SteelтАФHarper, Tara K - Wolf 05


left the answer hanging.
She turned away and quietly gathered her things: the over-tunic, the belt
and knives, the silver healerтАЩs circlet, the herb pouches she was never
without. She slipped her feet into worn trail boots and gathered up the gray
cloak with its blue-trimmed edge. Then she buckled on the sword belt and
long knife as if she no longer noticed the dichotomy of the healerтАЩs circlet
against the steel. She breathed life and death through both, and when she