"Mercedes Lackey - Brightly Burning" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

had no more appetite anyway. Instead, he went straight to the classroom, waiting in a dull fog for the rest
to return. As he sat there, hands clenched in a knot in front of him, the others filed in, wordlessly, casting
odd glances at him. He still felt hot, and that smoldering anger had made such a red-hot coal in his chest
he didnтАЩt feel able to speak. Not that any of them said a word to him.
Maybe his expression warned them away.
But when the teacher came in, he didnтАЩt look as if Lan appeared any different. The teacher
looked over the whole class, then rested his gaze on Lan, and said only, тАЬLavan. Can you recite
yesterdayтАЩs lesson for us?тАЭ as if Lan hadnтАЩt been away at all. тАЬI hope youтАЩve been as diligent for this class
as you seem to have been for the others.тАЭ
Lan stood up with some difficulty, for there was a sort of roaring in his ears and his knees felt
wobbly. He opened his mouth to speak-
And the next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor, with OwynтАЩs anxious face leaning over him
and the teacher saying sharply, тАЬClear back, all of you!тАЭ As he tried to sit up, he gasped with pain and fell
back again. The headache was back, with a vengeance.
And he could have wept with relief instead of pain. He welcomed the agony, every throb, every
lancing blow through the temples, as the teacher assisted him to his feet and helped him out of the
classroom. The gods had granted him a reprieve, once again, and redemption. Not even Tyron would
dare accuse him of fakery after this-
He only got halfway down the hall before he blacked out a second time. When he woke again, it
was to find himself lying on a couch in Master KeilethтАЩs office, with an old man in Healer Greens
examining him. He looked up into the old manтАЩs aged face to see warm blue eyes, half-hidden in
wrinkles, regarding him with compassion.
The old man was speaking, he realized vaguely, but not to him.
 тАЬ-not an illness. My guess would be dazzle-headaches, though they donтАЩt usually come with fever
like this.тАЭ The old man was saying. Then he noticed LanтАЩs open eyes, and he passed his hand over his
bald head. тАЬAh, awake are you? How do you feel?тАЭ
тАЬAwful,тАЭ Lan croaked. The pain hadnтАЩt abated one bit, and the light hurt his eyes.
The old man nodded, helping him sit up enough that he could drink a potion he recognized by its
taste. тАЬSend him home, Master Keileth, until this attackтАЩs passed. ThatтАЩs all we can do for such things
once theyтАЩre well started like this one. IтАЩll take him home in my carriage, talk with his parents, and leave
another medicine at his house that should help prevent them in the future.тАЭ
Master Keileth gave a sigh that was half exasperation and half relief. As the pain potion took
hold, the Healer helped Lan to his feet and got him out the door, down the stairs in the chill air, and into
the carriage. He was amazingly strong for such a wizened old fellow. Once there, safely outside the walls
of the school, LanтАЩs relief was so profound that the medicine worked even faster and Lan let himself fall
into induced slumber. His last coherent thought was that Master Keileth was undoubtedly annoyed at the
inconvenience of having a pupil pass out in his school, but probably relieved that he couldnтАЩt be held
responsible.
Nor would he have to refund all that tuition money.

*

HE roused when they arrived at the house, and the servants brought him up to his room with a
great deal of unnecessary fuss. Three of them descended on the carriage-the housekeeper and two of the
manservants. The housekeeper directed the operation like a shrill-voiced general as the two manservants
each draped an arm over their shoulders, and with Lan dangling between them, took him up the stairs
and dropped him onto his bed, where he sat, blinking owlishly, too fogged to think of what to do next.
The manservants stripped him to his skin and threw a nightshirt over him, then bundled him into bed with
brisk and impersonal efficiency.
His mother was home already, for some reason, and followed them up, right behind the old