"Mercedes Lackey - Alta" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

first time had been this afternoon, twice in rapid succession, enough to
feed her well at midday. The second time had been with the help of Vetch's
sling, and enabled the two of them to provide an evening meal not only for
Avatre herself but for Vetch and the clan of Veiled Ones who were hosting
him on this last evening in the desert. There was a faint scent of roasting
meat on the kamiseen tonight, the last remains of the evening feast.

He was within striking distance of the goal he had sought for so long.
Soon he would cross the border that divided Tian lands from Altan. Soon
he would be among his own people, and although he probably looked
outwardly calm, inside he was afire with excitementтАФand at the same
time, afraid. This moment was one he had dreamed about for so long, but
dreams were one thingтАФreality another.

Once, he had dreamed of having a dragon, too. Now he had one, and
Avatre was so much more than he had been able to imagine. She gave him
freedomтАФand tied him to her with bonds of responsibility and love. He
had never envisaged how much she would mean to him. It was a glorious
burden he would never have given up for the world, but it meant that he
was no longer beholden only to himself. In fact, when given a choice
between his own welfare and hersтАФand there had been many such choices
on this journeyтАФhe would always choose hers. He could not help himself.
She was his beloved, after all.

Now, faced with the prospect of crossing into the land he had once
thought of as his goal, he knew that no matter what his dreams had been,
they could not possibly replicate what he would encounter.

Those dreams might be better than what he actually found, or they
might be worse. But they would probably be different, and that alone was
a reason for fear.

But this was as far as the talismans that the Veiled Ones had provided
as a series of guides would take him. Tomorrow, one of them would
personally take him to within sight of the Altan border, the lands where
the desert ended and the swampy delta began, and leave him there.

Tonight, unlike previous evenings, he was not alone at his fire. He
shared it with one of the Mouths of the Bedu nomads, an enigmatic and
apparently sexless creature covered from head to toe in one of their
characteristic, belted blue robes and over-vest, dyed with indigo. As all of
the others, the Mouth was veiled by a drape of cloth that showed only the
eyes. Both sexes wore the veils; a practical consideration when one lived in
a land where the wind never stopped, and neither did the dust. He had
never heard of any of the Bedu going without their veils, but then, he had
never heard of the Bedu going outside the desert. That the costume made
the Veiled Ones even more enigmatic to outsiders was, he was sure at this
point, a source of endless amusement to them.

He still could not tell whether these Mouths were male or female.