"Barb & J. C. Hendee - Noble Dead 03 - Sister of the Dead" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hendee JC & Barb)

"Another journey, " she answered.

Leesil settled back on the bed, comfortably close as he brushed stands of hair off her face.

"The sages gave me some supplies, but as we get farther north and into the Warlands, restocking could
get difficult. More so as we move on to the northern mountains and the Crown Range between there and
the elven lands. We'll need more before we leave. "

Magiere hesitated. How could she make him face her new choice?

In youth, he'd fled from slavery as a warlord's assassin, knowing his escape would cause his own
parents' execution. For years afterward, he drank himself to sleep each night to smother guilt-spawned
nightmares. Even Magiere hadn't known, until he'd confessed but a few nights ago. Then an assassin
named SgaileтАФone of the elvenanmaglahk тАФhad come to take Leesil's life. Leesil's mother had
betrayed her own caste by teaching him and his father theanmaglahk's cold-blooded ways. The assassin
changed his mind and let Leesil go. From this encounter, Leesil suspected his mother still lived,
imprisoned all these years by her own people.

Now that he had hope, Magiere had to make him wait even longer.

"Before we seek your mother, if she still lives, " she said, "we need to go to my home village in
Droevinka. "

She'd fled from there nine years ago at the age of sixteen, and the thought of returning made bile rise in
her throat. Her discomfort vanished when Leesil's smile faded.

He rose up in the bed. "If she lives? What does thatтАФ?"

Magiere quickly covered his lips with her fingers as she sat up.

"I didn't mean it that way. I want to believe as much as you... but I had a mother, as well, and a past
neither of us knows. I need answers, too. "

Twice they'd been manipulated into battles with the undead. The last time they fought, in the king's city of
Bela, had left them both with more questions than answers. Magiere learned more of her
natureтАФdhampir, hunter of the deadтАФ in being coerced into ridding Bela of its undead predators. In the
end, Welstiel Massing, whom she'd once thought an ally, revealed himself as a Noble Dead akin to the
ones he'd pitted her against. He'd staged the encounters to train her for his own purpose in acquiring an
unknown artifact supposedly guarded by ancient Noble Dead.

Welstiel had been less than forthcoming or even knowledgeable about her origin, but his actions stirred
Magiere's desire to know.

Leesil's eyes betrayed a twinge of dismay as he looked at her. "No... no. " He shook his head. "It's been
too many yearsтАФ"
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