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

Nelda snorted. тАЬIf you arenтАЩt a liar, youтАЩve allowed these boys to bully and tease you, and you
made no attempt to stand up to them.тАЭ Her lip curled. тАЬThat makes you a coward; Sam would never put
up with this sort of nonsense.тАЭ
тАЬBut-тАЭ Yes, and Sam was tall and strong and no one would dare shove him around!
Nelda went on as if she hadnтАЩt heard his weak protest.
тАЬAnd as for that last tale of yours, well!тАЭ She shook her head. тАЬTyron JelnackтАЩs father is the
Grand Master of the SilversmithsтАЩ Guild, Lavan; why would he do anything like you claim heтАЩs done?
First of all, I cannot believe that a boy from that fine a family would behave the way you have been
describing, and secondly I do not believe he would ever dream of making that kind of extortionate
demand!тАЭ
Lan listened to his mother in a state of shock, numb with incredulity. She still didnтАЩt believe him!
He had thought that she would cover him with scorn for тАЬnot standing up for himself,тАЭ but he had never,
ever, thought that she wouldnтАЩt believe him!
тАЬThe only possible explanation is that theyтАЩve been making a goose out of you,тАЭ she scolded him.
тАЬSince I canтАЩt believe that you would try to lie about all of this, that is the only conclusion I can come to.
These boys have been pulling an enormous joke on you, and you were too dense to see it!тАЭ
A joke? She thinks this was all a joke on me? How could she-how could she even imagine-
She shook her head again, oblivious to his shocked gaze. тАЬLavan, you are more trouble than all
of your brothers and sisters put together. Why canтАЩt you be like the rest of them?тАЭ
With that, she rose and left him, leaving him alone with the flickering candles and a feeling of
complete despair.
Never had he felt so completely alone.
His last possible refuge had been closed to him; his own mother thought he was exaggerating and
being duped. Nothing would be done, and he would have to go back to school knowing that he had no
other choice but to endure whatever Tyron decided to deal out to him.
 No point in trying to tell his father about this; Nelda would give him her own interpretation, and
that would be that. Archer would hear no further appeals from Lan.
As for the velvet . . . if Tyron didnтАЩt forget, the velvet might as well be on the moon. Lan could
never get it for him. He had no money to buy it, and his father would never let him have it. As for stealing
it-out of the question. Velvet was kept in a locked room at the warehouse, every thumbтАЩs length of it
measured and accounted for.
Tyron didnтАЩt want the velvet. He just wanted another excuse to bully Lan. HeтАЩll just flog me, he
tried to tell himself. WhatтАЩs a few stripes? He wonтАЩt kill me.
No, but the pain and the humiliation . . . and worse than that, the certain knowledge that every
student in the school would look down on him the way his mother did now . . . how could he bear that?
And there would be years more of this, of being beaten and humiliated, of being bullied and treated as
less than the lowest ragpicker.
What he wanted to do was to howl his anguish like an animal, but what came out of his throat
was a strangled whimper.
If only he could just drink enough of the potion to sleep forever. . . .
He lay flat on his back as the candles burned out, one by one, a bleak cloud of depression
weighing him down. Slowly, silently, tears ran down his temples, leaving behind cold trails on the skin and
soaking into his hair.
Finally the last of his candles guttered in a pool of its own wax, and he reached despondently for
his medicine. There wasnтАЩt enough left in the bottle to let him sleep forever. If only there was!
Well, if it helped with the pain in his head, perhaps it would help with the pain in his heart.

*

DRUGS only brought an end to the physical pain; they did nothing for his despair. He lost his