"Katherine Kurtz - The Deryni Archives" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kurtz Katherine)

stories written by fellow authors who have been influenced by the honoree and
who wish to pay him or her tribute.) The major requirement was that the story
be of the sort that Andre would enjoy reading.
And so, since I grew up on Andre's books about young people and animals and
coming of age (Starman's Son was an early favorite), I decided that I ought to
respond in kind. Camber's children seemed likely candidates, for at that time,
I had not set any Deryni stories earlier than Camber of Culdi. A story about
Joram, Rhys, and Evaine would also give me an opportunity to play a bit with
the character of Cathan, Camber's eldest son, who had been killed off fairly
early in the Camber series. In addition, since I had just lost my two elderly
cats, Cimber and Gillie, from complications of age, the story could be my
memorial to them-for as youngsters, Camber's children surely would have had
cats around the castle at Caerrorie. (They would have had dogs, too, but I'm
not really a dog person, so I've never gotten into doggy lore. With apologies
to dog-lovers, I'm afraid the dogs in this story get rather short shrift.)
From there, it was a simple progression to have Rhys, in the course of
discovering that he's going to be a Healer, do for his cat what I hadn't been
able to do for my own in the real world. I changed Cimber's name to the
soundalike Symber in the story, because Cimber looks too much like Camber on
the printed page. The lines ascribed to Lady Jocelyn, describing Symber as
"that damned stringbean" while in his gangly adolescence, were words my own
mother used to describe my Cimber; but he, like Symber, grew into a
magnificent cat. Gillie, who is the unnamed white cat sleeping at Cathan's
feet, never did go through that awkward stage. Even as a kitten, she was a
perfectly proportioned miniature cat who simply got bigger-and would have
twitched her plume-tail in indignation at the mere thought that she was ever
anything less than graceful and beautiful.
So this is for Cimber and Gillie, as well as for Andre. In addition, it is the
favorite story of my son Cameron, who was the same age as Rhys and Joram when
the story was written and who adores cats at least as much as I do. I think he
also liked "Catalyst" because it shows that even Deryni children, with all
their advantages, have the same kinds of problems growing up that any other
children have.

Catalyst
Biting at his lip in concentration, eleven-year-old Rhys Thuryn stared at the
red archer on the board between him and Joram MacRorie and wrapped his mind
around it. Smoothly the little painted figure lifted across two squares to
menace Joram's blue abbot.
The younger boy had turned to watch rain beginning to spatter against the
lights of a tall, grey-glazed window beside them, but at the movement on the
board, his blond head jerked back with a start.
"Oh no! Not my Michaeline you don't!" he cried, nearly overturning the board
as he sprang to his feet to see better. "Rhys, that was a sneaky move! Cathan,
what'll I do?"
Cathan, a bored and blas├й fifteen-year-old, looked up from his reading with a
forebearing sigh, red-nosed and miserable with the cold that had kept him from
going hunting with the rest of the household. The white cat napping against
his feet did not stir, even when Rhys chortled with delight and knuckled
exuberantly at already unruly red hair.