"Mercedes Lackey - Wet Wings" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

She had a few more minutes at most, before they zapped the lock on her door
and broke in. She had to save something, anything!

Then her eyes lighted on the butterfly, his wings fully unfurled and waving
gently, and she knew what she would do.

First, she freed Horace. He flew off, squawking indignantly at being sent out
into the overcast. But there was no other choice; if they found him, they
would probably cage him up and send him to a forest preserve somewhere. He did
not know how to find food in a wildernessтАФlet him at least stay here in the
city, where he knew how to steal food from birdfeeders, and where the best
dumpsters were.

Then she cupped her hands around the butterfly, and gathered all of her magic.
All of it this time; a great burden for one tiny insect, but there was no
choice.

Songs and tales, magic and wonder; power, vision, will, strengthтАФ She breathed
them into the butterfly's wings, and he trembled as the magic swirled around
him, in a vortex of sparkling mist.

Pride. Poetry. Determination. Love. HopeтАФ

She heard them at the door, banging on it, ordering her to open in the name of
the Equal State. She ignored them. There was at least a minute or so left.

The gift of words. The gift of differenceтАФ
Finally she took her hands away, spent and exhausted, and feeling as empty as
an old paper sack. The butterfly waved his wings, and though she could no
longer see it, she knew that a drift of sparkling power followed the
movements.

There was a whine behind her as the Psi-cops zapped the lock.

She opened the window, coaxed the butterfly onto her hand, and put him
outside. An errant ray of sunshine broke through the overcast, gilding him
with a glory that mirrored the magic he carried.

"Go," she breathed. "Find someone worthy."

He spread his wings, tested the breeze, and lifted off her hand, to be carried
away.

And she turned, full of dignity and empty of all else, to face her enemies.