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

your water pump goes out, that doesn't mean we're going to rip open a Gate to send one to you. Gates
are expensive, and you have perfectly sound limbs for carrying water in buckets."
Tad was taken aback, and so was Blade. That simply hadn't occurred to him; living among mages
had made him think of Gates being put up quite casually. Gryphons flew, mages made Gates, it was that
simple.
But now he realized that although a Gate went up just about every two or three days, they didn't
stay up for very long, and what was more, they didn't even go up to the same place more often than once
every month or two. There were just a lot of outposts and other far-flung ventures to supply, and that
was what had made it seem as if Gating was commonplace and simple.
 Aubri's eyes twinkled. "Your Gates will be opened at the scheduled times, not one moment earlier
unless it's a real emergency of a life-threatening nature. They will remain open for only the scheduled
times, so if there's more stuff you've asked for than can be chucked through in a hurry, that's too bad.
You may have to wait through several resupply opportunities for your water pump. So what does that
mean, Silvers?"
"Manuals," Blade said with resignation, adding them to the list. "We'll need repair manuals. All the
repair tools we'd need will be there already, right?"
"And the manuals, too, don't worry; that outpost's been open a long time, and remember that Judeth
and I were there first. We had the rank to order whatever we thought should be in place out there. Try
again."
Blade chewed a nail and frowned as she thought. Her brows furrowed, and her eyes darkened until
they were nearly blue-black. "Um. You said it's really damp. Humid?"
He nodded. "There's fog there, isn't there? Every morning. And rain every evening."
She brightened. "Bladders. Seals. Anything made of leather or woodтАФor metal that might rust.
Repair parts that can get ruined by damp! That would be forтАФthe water pump, the stove, the
plumbingтАФ" She began to scribble.
"Good!" Aubri turned to Tad, who fortunately had an answer waiting, because he already knew
Aubri's prejudices. He'd heard the litany often enough, when he was still living at home.
"The kind of equipment that might go missing or get spoiled by damp that doesn't rely on magic to
work," he said promptly. "Things like firestrikers, tinder boxes, trace sextant and compass for surveying...
ah...." He pummeled his brain. Aubri nodded.
"Don't strain yourself; since you've just shown me that you know the principle, I'll give you a list. It's
basically a few common replacement parts and some old army gear; won't add that much to your load,
but there isn't much you can't do with it if you put your mind to the problem."
He didn't even move; he just stretched out a claw and stabbed a piece of paper already waiting on
the top of the goldenwood desk that stood just within snatching distance. He must have been ready for
them, once again proving that he wasn't nearly as absentminded as he seemed.
Blade took it from him, and Tad noticed that she seemed a bit bemused. Probably because she had
a tendency to take everything and everyone at face value, and every time Aubri went into his "senile old
featherhead" act, she fell for it.
Well, she can't help it. This was her big weakness, and Tad had a good idea why she wasn't likely
to cure it any time soon. Part of the problem was that she just didn't want to look past the surface masks
that everyone wore, no matter how honest and genuine they were. Tad's partner just didn't want to know
what surprises might lie beneath those polite masks; that Empathy thing of hers bothered her, and if she
could have had it surgically removed, Tad had it figured that she would have done so no matter what the
risk. And there were reasons behind that as well; she had realized a long time ago that she would never,
ever be as good as her father at delving into people's hearts and souls. She was the kind of person who,
if she couldn't excel at something, didn't want to try.
Silly. Not every mage can be a Snowstar, but the hedge-wizards can do plenty of things he
hasn't got the time for, or even do subtle things he can't do at all. Well, it'd be flogging pointlessly
to take that up with her, at least now. Maybe after we've been out there a while, and we've had a