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

Amberdrake in dress and demeanor, though far less flamboyant. Blade knew him too well to blush.
"Of course, Uncle Snowstar," she retorted. "You weren't using them, so why shouldn't I?"
He chuckled at her impertinence; next to Skandranon, she was the only person likely to take that
tone with him. It was not wise to risk the anger of an Adept-level mage as powerful as Snowstar, as
others, even his own underlings, had found out to their sorrow.
"I don't think you'll have any trouble with the basket-spells, Tadrith," he said, turning to the young
gryphon. "They are as tight as any I've ever set."
Blade had assumed her "adoptive uncle" had come to see them off, along with her parents; she was
astonished to hear him say that he himself had placed the magics on their carry-basket that would make it
possible to fly with it. "You set them, uncle?" she said, making no secret of her surprise. "Isn't
thatтАФwellтАФ?"
"Rather beneath me?" He laughed. "First of all, it is always a good idea for a mage to keep in
practice on anything he might be asked to do, and secondly, if something were to fail, magically, on your
basketтАФ" He shrugged suggestively. "Suffice it to say, it was easier and safer to do the work myself, than
have to explain to your parents why I let some 'inferior mage' do it."
Blade nodded ruefully. "Only too true," she told him. She would have said more, but at that moment
she caught the sound of familiar voices from below the edge of the cliff.
At nearly the same moment, Tad pointed warningly with his beak at a trio of rapidly approaching
gryphons, who could only be his parents and sibling.
"All we need now are Judeth and Aubri to make this show complete," Blade groaned, resigning
herself to a long and complicated farewell that would shave precious time off the amount of daylight they
could have used for traveling.
"Is that a complaint or a request?"
Commander Judeth stalked out of the door to the Silvers' clifftop headquarters, but she was smiling
rather than frowning. She was not Kaled'a'in; her hair, before it turned to snowy white, had been a dark
blonde, and her eyes a clear gray-green. Nevertheless she had been one of Urtho's generals who
understood the value of her nonhuman troops and deployed them with care and consideration, and no
one had been unhappy to find her among the k'Leshya when the last Gate came down. She had proved
her worth over and over, both during their retreat from lands racked by mage-storms and at White
Gryphon. With her partner Aubri, she had organized the first beginnings of the Silvers, and the Silvers in
their turn bore the stamp of her personality. She alone of all of them wore anything like a uniform; a black
tunic and trews modeled from the tattered originals of her old dress uniforms. The gryphon-badge stood
out proudly against such an elegant background.
She stopped just short of the platform and looked sardonically from Tad to Blade and back again.
"Can I take it from that remark that you think I might be a hindrance to a timely departure?" she
continued.
Blade flushed, and the old woman allowed a hint of a smile to steal across her lips.
"I assure you, Aubri and I came here solely to make certain that your loving relatives did not do any
such thing," she said crisply, and cleared her throat.
"All right, troops!" she called out in a voice that had once commanded thousands, just as
Amberdrake and Winterhart appeared at the end of the trail. "Let's get up here and get your good-byes
said and over with! This isn't a holiday trip, this is a military departure! Move your rumps!"
"Thank the gods," Blade breathed, as her parents and Tad's scrambled to obey. "We just might
actually get out of here before noon!"
"In a quarter-mark," Judeth replied sternly. "Or every one of you will be on obstacle-course runs
before midmorning."
Blade chuckled; not because Judeth wouldn't make good on that promiseтАФbut because she would.
What had promised to be a difficult departure was already looking better, even with
emotionally-charged families approaching. After this, things could only start looking up.