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

consulted him, or chosen him as her partner instead of Tad. Above all, she wanted to know what he was
thinking.
Instead, she couldn't say anything.
"Come and sit," he said, gesturing at the rocks beside him. "You do not look comfortable."
I'm not, she said silently. I'm as twitchy as a nervous cat.
But she sat down anyway, warily, gingerly. The sun-warmed rock felt smooth beneath her hand,
worn to satin-softness by hundreds of years of wind and water. She concentrated on the rock, mentally
holding to its solidity and letting it anchor her heart.
"I am both happy for you and sad, Blade," Ikala said, as if he was carefully weighing and choosing
each word. "I am happy for you, because you are finally being grantedтАФwhat you have earned. It is a
good thing. But I am sad because you will be gone for months."
He sighed, although he did not stir. Blade held herself tensely, waiting for him to continue, but he
said nothing more. She finally turned toward him. "I wanted an assignment like this one very much," she
agreed. "I'm not certain I can explain why, thoughтАФ"
 But unexpectedly, as he half-turned to meet her eyes, he smiled. "Let me try," he suggested, and
there was even a suggestion of self-deprecating humor. "You feel smothered by your honored parents
and, perversely, wish for their approval of a life so different from theirs. Additionally, you fear that their
influence will either purchase you an easier assignment than you warrant, or will insure that you are never
placed in any sort of danger. You wish to see what you can do with only the powers of your own mind
and your own skills, and if you are not far away from them, you are certain you will never learn the
answer to that question."
"Yes!" she exclaimed, startled by his insight. "But how did youтАФтАв" Then she read the message
behind that rueful smile, the shrug of the dark-skinned shoulders. "You came here for the same reason,
didn't you?"
He nodded once, and his deep brown eyes showed that same self-deprecating humor that had first
attracted her. "The same. And that is why, although I wish that you were not going so far or for so
longтАФor that we were going to the same placeтАФI wanted you to know that I am content to wait upon
your return. We will see what you have learned, and what that learning has made of you."
"And you think I will be different?" She licked her lips with a dry tongue.
"At least in part," he offered. "You may return a much different person than the one you are now; not
that I believe that I will no longer care much for that different person! But that person and I may prove to
be no more than the best of friends and comrades-in-arms. And that will not be a bad thing, though it is
not the outcome I would prefer."
She let out her breath and relaxed. He was being so reasonable about this that she could hardly
believe her ears! "I don't know," she admitted. "I think I've spent so much time proving who I'm not that I
don't know who I am."
"So go and find out," he told her, and laughed, now reaching out to touch her hand briefly. The touch
sent a shivery chill up her arm. "You see, I had to come here to do the same thing. So I have some
understanding of the process."
"Are you glad that you came here?" she asked, wondering if the question was too personal, and
wishing he would do more than just touch her hand.
Now it was his turn to look away, into the sunset, for a moment. "On the wholeтАФyes," he told her.
"Although in doing so, it became impossible to follow the alternate path I might have taken. There was a
maiden, back in my father's courtтАФbut she was impatient, and did not like it that I chose to go
somewhere other than to the court of another emperor. She saw my choice as a lessening of my status,
and my leaving as a desertion of her. I have heard that she wedded elsewhere, one of my more traditional
half-brothers."
"OhтАФI'm sorryтАФ" she said quickly, awkwardly.
But he turned back to her, and did not seem particularly unhappy as he ran his hand across his stiff
black curls. "There is not a great deal to be sorry about," he pointed out. "If she saw it as desertion, she