"Mercedes Lackey - Obsidian 02 - To Light A Candle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

"Less than an hour. We've already passed the first scouts from Sentarshadeen. They've probably
gone back to warn the welcoming party to be ready to greet us." The unicorn's voice was bland,
but Kellen's stomach clenched in a tight knot of tension. He'd lost all track of how long they'd been
traveling, and hadn't had any idea they were so close. Now the aching of his body was joined by
the clenching of his gut. They had gone out a party of three. They were returning a party of four.
And one of the four was not going to be welcomed with open arms by the Elves.

"Does he know?" Kellen asked. He nodded to where Jermayan rode on Valdien, with Vestakia -
thoroughly bundled up, of course - sitting behind him on the destrier's saddle. At the end of a long
tether, the cream-colored pack mule ambled along behind Valdien, every inch of her covered with
the black mud splashed up from the road. At least once they were back in Sentarshadeen it would
be someone else's job to try to get her - and Valdien - clean.

"He saw them, I imagine," Shalkan said, without adding the obvious: that naturally Jermayan would
recognize exactly where he was, even if Kellen didn't. And that Elven senses were much keener
than Kellen's. Especially now, when most of Kellen's awareness was wrapped in pain.

Almost home - at least, as much home as Sentarshadeen was. Dry, out of the rain, and a chance to
sleep in a proper bed again. And most of all, a proper Healer to deal with his hands and anything
else that was wrong with him. Kellen tried to look forward to those things.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of things about their welcome home that he wasn't looking forward
to. And unfortunately, he was not really certain that a Healer would be able to set his hands right
again.

EVEN at the beginning of winter, the Elven valley bloomed. The silver sheen of the unicorn meadow
had turned to deep emerald when the rains came, and the parched city had come back to life.

Released from their desperate hopeless task of attempting to irrigate the forest lands surrounding
their canyon home, the Elves had resumed their patrols of the deep woods and the extended
borders of their homeland, for now, more than ever, it was vitally necessary, with their ancient
Enemy roused to life once more. And only a short time ago, one of those scout-pairs - a unicorn and
his rider - had brought word to Queen Ashaniel that Kellen and Jermayan had been sighted upon
the road.

Idalia had been about to scry for news of them when the Queen's message was brought to her.
She had immediately gone to the House of Leaf and Star, both to thank the Queen for the news
and to hear more of it than the scouts had brought to her.

Though the House of Leaf and Star was - in every sense that humans understood the word - the
palace of the King and Queen of the Elves, it was not even as grand as the house Idalia had grown
up in. Elven buildings were not meant to be imposing, but to be suitable, and although the House
of Leaf and Star was one of the largest structures in all the Elven Lands, it still managed to look
welcoming and homelike. It was a low, deep-eaved house built of silvery wood and pale stone, and
age and strength radiated from it as from an ancient living tree.

By the time she had crossed the long roofed portico, her cloak and wide-brimmed Mountain Trader
hat had shed most of their burden of water, and her boots had dried themselves upon the intricate
design of slatted wood with which the portico floor was inlaid - crafted for just that purpose, as all