"Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon - Mage Wars 03 - The Silver Gryphon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

The Silver Gryphon
Mage Wars 03
by Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon



version 2.0 compared to original, spell checked, completed February 6, 2004




Dedicated to "Dusty" Rhoades, Mike Hackett,
Scott Rodgers, and the rest of those
who know the Infobahn is a tool
not a religion.




One
Freedom!
Tadrith Skandrakae extended his broad gray wings, stretching out his muscles to their fullest extent
to take best advantage of the warm wind beneath him. Freedom at last! I thought I'd never get away
from that Section meeting. He banked just slightly to his left, slipping sideways for the best line. I know
it wasn't my good looks or charm that were putting me under that old crow's watch! I swear,
Aubri must get a special pleasure out of keeping people around him who desperately want to be
somewhere else. He half-closed his eyes against the glare of the sun on the water beneath him. He was
conscious of two pressures, one tangible and one fanciful; the warm imagined push of the sun on his
back, and the strong uplift of the thermal beneath him. Then again, maybe there were three pressures, or
four; the warm air below, the hot sun above, and the twin desires to be away from the boredom of yet
another Section meeting and the wish to be headed for something exciting.
The thermal tasted of salt and seaweed, and it gave him some welcome relief from rowing his wings
against the breeze. Beneath and beyond his left wing, the great Western Sea shone green-blue and vast,
the horizon a sharp line where the brilliant turquoise of the sky met the deep emerald green of the water
farther out. To his right, the cliff-built city of White Gryphon sent back the rays of the sun in a dazzling
display of snowy stone laced with growing things, drifts of trailing vines, and falling water. As had been
planned a generation ago, the city itself was laid out in the shape of a stylized gryphon with his wings
spread proudly against the mossy uncut stone of the cliff. By day, it glowed; by night, it glimmered, lit
with candle, lantern and mage-light. Tadrith loved it; a proud, promising, beckoning city, home to
thousands.
Beneath him, the olive-green waters of the cove rolled calmly against the base of the cliff and gurgled
around the pillars of the dock, a delicate lace-work of foam atop the swells. The moorings there were all
empty except for light utility craft, for the fishing fleet of White Gryphon would be out at sea until sunset,
Tadrith himself had served with the fleet in his first year as a Silver Gryphon; young gryphons acted as
aerial scouts, spotting schools of fish from above, and then worked as catch haulers later in the day.
 The only time that nets were used was when the catch haulers were taking the catch in to the shore.
In their first years here, the fleet had fished with drag- and gill-nets, but did so no more. Their Haighlei
allies had been horrified at the wastage caused by net fishing, for inedible sea life had been caught and
wantonly destroyed along with the edible fish. They had rightfully pointed out that the Kaled'a'in would
not have countenanced such wastage in hunting, so why should they allow it in fishing? Fishing was