"Mercedes Lackey - Mage Storms 1 - Storm Warning" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

magical help, heтАЩd accelerate the growth of a few more cuttings, and heтАЩd have them
at the right height in a week or two.
If I use evergreens, perhaps I can even take the edge off the transition between
indoors and outdoors even in winter.
He had worried when Firesong came up with these clever ideas that the original
тАЬownersтАЭ of this bit of property might object to all the changes. FiresongтАЩs little home
was in the remotest corner of a vast acreage called тАЬCompanionтАЩs Field,тАЭ and the
horselike beings that partnered the Heralds of Valdemar could very well have
objected to their privacy being invaded. But they didnтАЩt seem to mind the presence of
the Adept and his compatriots; in fact, they had contributed to the landscaping with
suggestions of their own that made the ekele blend in with the surroundings, just as
any good ekele should. From outside, the mottled gray and brown stone of the
support pillars blended with the trunks of the trees masking it, and the second story
was hidden among the branches. Firesong had chosen this particular place after he
had heard of a legend that told of a Herald Vanyel, supposedly Firesongs and
ElspethтАЩs ancestor, trysting with his beloved in this very grove of trees; after that,
nothing would do but that his own ekele be here as well.
Firesong had insisted on building his тАЬnestтАЭ in CompanionтАЩs Field in the first place,
rather than in the Palace gardens, precisely because he did not want any hint of the
alien buildings of Valdemar to jar on his awareness.
Strange. I would have thought that Darkwind would be the one to feel that way, not
Firesong. Darkwind was a scout; at one point, he could not even bear to live within
the confines of a Vale! But Darkwind dwells quite comfortably in the Palace with the
QueenтАЩs daughter, and it is Firesong who insists on removing himself to the isolation
of this place.
Then again, Firesong was a law unto himself; he could afford to dictate even to a
Queen in her own Palace how he would and would not live. Firesong was the most
powerful practicing Adept in this strange land, and he did not seem to have a
momentтАЩs hesitation when it came to exploiting that fact. Eventually Elspeth and
Darkwind might come to be his equals in power, but he had been a full Adept from a
very tender age, and had a great deal more experience than either the kтАЩSheyna
Hawkbrother or the Valdemaran Herald.
And perhaps he has isolated himself for my sake, and not his own. That could very
well be the case. AnтАЩdesha stared into the tree-shadows on the other side of the
window, and sighed.
He, more than anyone else, knew just how tenuous his stability was. For all intents
and purposes, he was still the young ShinтАЩaтАЩin of fifteen summers who had run away
from his Clan in order to be schooled in magic by the ShinтАЩaтАЩin тАЬcousins,тАЭ the
Hawkbrothers. For most of his tenure within FalconsbaneтАЩs mind, he had no more
than brief glimpses of what Falconsbane had been doing. He had no real experience
of those years; he might just as well never have lived them. In a very real sense, he
hadnтАЩt. Most of the time he had been hidden in the darkness, snatching only covert
glimpses of what Falconsbane was doing. I was afraid heтАЩd sense me watching
through his eyes - and what he was doing was horrible.
If he chose, he could delve into FalconsbaneтАЩs memories now; mostly, he did not
choose to do so. There was too much there that still made him sick; and it all
frightened him with the thought that Falconsbane might not be gone after all. HadnтАЩt
he hidden within the depths of FalconsbaneтАЩs mind for years without the Dark Adept
guessing he was there? What was to keep the far more experienced and practiced
Adept from having done the same? He had only FiresongтАЩs word that Mornelithe