"Mercedes Lackey - Dragon Jousters 2 - Alta" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

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

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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. Perhaps they were neither; it was
altogether possible that they were a kind of eunuch. He didn't find that idea as discomfiting as he might
have once; if the Mouths were a sort of eunuch, it was not something that had happened against their
will. And certainly there were priests of certain obscure gods even among his own people who
volunteered for such a sacrifice. Some believed that those who had done so obtained the special favor of
their god; others that to remove sex from one's life opened one to visions, or granted great magical
power. For some, such a sacrifice was worth the gain.

This particular Mouth was regarding Vetch from the other side of a smaller fire than the one that had
heated Avatre's rocks, watching with a direct and clear-eyed gaze over the veil. The Mouth had asked