"Jean Lorrah - Empire 03 - Captives of the Savage Empire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lorrah Jean)

happy in a marriage like that, Melissa thought.

The earthquakes continued, minor but annoyingтАФperhaps ten days would pass, perhaps almost a month,
and again the ground would shake beneath them. Aventine history recorded nothing like this; there had
been major earthquakes, even volcanic eruptions from time to time, spaced generations apart, but never
such a series of minor shocks. Eventually, though, people became used to them, and hardly noticed when
they happened.

Autumn passed and winter brought cold rain. Melissa spent her time off in Alethia's cottage, thoroughly
enjoying that happy family. Primus was back to full health. The baby grew and prospered. Life was
good.

Melissa's life at the hospital, though, was not so good. She still had not achieved the plane of
privacyтАФwhich meant that she could not learn the difficult task of maneuvering on the varied planes of
existence. Without that ability, she could not begin the second part of her medical training: ministering to
sick minds.

Some part of her was content with what she had achieved. She was an excellent healer of sick bodies;
surely that would be enough to keep her here at the hospitalтАж with Jason.

//That is your problem,//he told her. //You have not made a commitment. One day you want to be a
healer, the next you want to be a wife and mother like Alethia. One day you are satisfied with surgery,
and the next you want to be a Master ReaderтАФuntil you try the exercises again.//

But she could not tell him that he was a major part of her problem. If she could only detect any certain
sign, beyond the interest he took in her as a student, that he really wanted and needed herтАФ

Then one day, as she was walking toward Alethia's house, a boy came up to her. "You Melissa?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Here." He shoved a note into her hand, and ran off. She read it: "Meet me at the quay." There was no
signature. Yet she had no doubt who had sent it.
//Alethia.//

//Melissa! I've been expecting you!//

//I'm sorryтАФI've been called away. I'll come back if I can. Hug the children for me.//

Today she huddled up in her woolen cloak against the sea wind, sharply different from the breeze last
summer. Jason was already there, in her spot on the rocks under the pier. So she went up into the street
and out onto the pier, kneeling above him, drawing her cloak about her. Now she was not Reading, and
neither was he. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"I'm not certain," he replied. "A number of things. A date has been set for my testing, although I did not
request it."

"Testing?"

"For the rank of Master."