"Mercedes Lackey - Heralds of Valdemar 3 - Arrow's Fall" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

It was the Companions who chose new Heralds, forging between themselves and
their Chosen a mind-to-mind bond that only death could sever. While no one
knew precisely how intelligent they were, it was generally agreed that their
capabilities were at least as high as those of their human partners.
Companions could (and did) Choose irrespective of age and sex, although they
tended to Choose youngsters just entering adolescence, and more boys were
Chosen than girls. The one common trait among the Chosen (other than a
specific personality type: patient, unselfish, responsible, and capable of
heroic devotion to duty) was at least a trace of psychic ability. Contact with
a Companion and continued development of the bond enhanced whatever latent
paranormal capabilities lay within the Chosen. With time, as these Gifts
became better understood, ways were developed to train and use them to the
fullest extent of which the individual was capable. Gradually the Gifts
displaced in importance whatever knowledge of "true magic" was left in
Valdemar, until there was no record of how such magic had ever been learned or
used.

ARROWS FALL

11

Valdemar himself evolved the unique system of government for his land: the
Monarch, advised by his Council, made the laws; the Heralds dispensed the laws
and saw that they were observed. The Heralds themselves were nearly incapable
of becoming corrupted or potential abusers of their temporal power. In all of
the history of Valdemar, there was only one Herald who had ever succumbed to
that temptation. His motive had been vengeanceтАФhe got what he wanted, but his
Companion repudiated and abandoned him, and he committed suicide shortly
thereafter.

The Chosen were by nature remarkably self-sacrificingтАФ their training only
reinforced this. They had to beтАФthere was a better than even chance that a
Herald would die in the line of duty. But they were human for all of that;
mostly young, mostly living on the edge of dangerтАФso, it was inevitable that
outside of their duty they tended to be a bit hedonistic and anything but
chaste. They seldom formed any ties beyond that of their brotherhood and the
pleasures of the momentтАФperhaps because the bond of brotherhood was so very
strong, and because the Herald-Companion bond left little room for any other
permanent ties. For the most part, few of the common or noble folk held this
against themтАФknowing that, no matter how wanton a Herald might be on leave,
the moment he donned his snowy uniform he was another creature altogether, for
a Herald in Whites was a Herald on duty, and a Herald on duty had no time for
anything outside of that duty, least of all the frivolity of his own
pleasures. Still, there were those who held other opinions. . . .

Laws laid down by the first King decreed that the Monarch himself must also be
a Herald. This ensured that the ruler of Valdemar could never be the kind of
tyrant who had caused the founders to flee their own homes.

Second in importance to the Monarch was the Herald known as the "King's (or