"Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon - Mage Wars 02 - The White Gryphon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

quite enough to satisfy his needs.
These thoughts were on his mind as he lowered his knife down between Telica's thighs. That, and his
craving for her to make some noise for him.
The blade touched the birch-white skin of one thigh.
At that moment, a shadow moved across Telica's still skin. The lighting in the room shifted as
someoneтАФno, several someonesтАФcame into the room uninvited. Now this was an outrage! Hadanelith
whirled, knife in hand, to confront these presumptuous invaders. Before he could utter more than a snarl,
a boot to his face made things quite different than a minute before, when he was the one in control.

Amberdrake's trepidation had hardened into a dull, tight pain in his gut. It certainly wasn't because
he hadn't seen horror in his life, or felt himself grow ill from feeling others' suffering. It wasn't precisely
because he feared a violent confrontation, or the cleaning up that was always needed after such a thing
happened. The sensation he had, as the group arrived at Hadanelith's homeтАФor perhaps it should be
called a lairтАФwas dread for its own sake. Amberdrake had the feeling that nothing good was going to
come of this arrest. Morally it was the right thing to do, by Law it was the right thing to do, yet still there
was that gnawing in his gut that told him they were doing more harm than good.
Aubri, the Eternally Battered, apparently felt it also, although it might have just been a bad breakfast
that caused his disgruntled expression. He was a gryphon who never had any good luck, if you believed
what he said.
"It's too quiet in there, Drake," he wheezed, as they held themselves poised just outside Hadanelith's
door. "We know he's got someone in there, so why isn't there any sound?"
"I don't know," Amberdrake replied, in an anxious whisper. "I don't like it, either. Judeth?"
"I've got a bad feeling about this," she said shortly. "Let's get in thereтАФnow."
With a wave of her hand, she led her group of ex-fighters through the door in a rush. Amberdrake
trailed behind, warrant still held in his clenched hand, dreading what they would find.
So he didn't actually see Judeth kick Hadanelith in the jaw and send him sprawling to the floor, but
once he saw what had prompted that action, he also saw no need to protest what might be considered an
act of brutality.
The young woman was bound only by thread, in one of the most excruciatingly uncomfortable
positions Amberdrake had ever seen. Her skin was sheened with sweat, and her muscles trembled with
the effort of holding herself in place. There were faint scars in many places on her pale skin. With
Hadanelith's carving knife lying on the floor where Judeth had just kicked it, there wasn't much doubt in
Amberdrake's mind where those scars had come from.
But most horrible of allтАФshe acted as if she were completely unaware of their presence.
No. She's not acting. She is unaware of our presence. She will not acknowledge that we are
here because he has not told her to.
That was what held him frozen, and what made Judeth's eyes blaze with black rage; that one
presumably human person had done this to another.
The scars are only the least of what he has done to her. This will take months to undo. This is
a case for the Healers; my people can't possibly make this right.
With trembling hands, Amberdrake unrolled the arrest warrant and read it out loud. Hadanelith did
not move from the place where he lay sprawled across his own floor, not even to finger the growing
bruise on his jaw.
He only glared up at Amberdrake in impotent fury as the kestra'chern read out the charges and the
sentence.
"You've heard the charges. We've seen the evidence before our eyes. You've been caught,
Hadanelith," Judeth said fiercely, biting off each word as if she bitterly regretted having to say anything to
him at all. "Have you got anything to say in your defense?"
In answer, Hadanelith spat at her. Since he was lying on the ground and she was standing over him,
it didn't get very far. The glob of spittle hit the top of her boot and ran down the side. One of the human