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

Glad they were not Reading, she considered why she was startled. She had always thought of Jason as
permanently fixed, a healer at the hospital. Few Readers became Masters, and testing for that rank was
usually done when they were between thirty and thirty-five years old, at the peak of their powers. It
suddenly occurred to her that she had no idea how old Jason was.

For just one moment she allowed herself to ReadтАФto "see" him. She had never done it before; she had
never allowed herself to think of his physical being. He was sheltered on the rocks as she had been last
summer, his cloak pulled about himтАФnot an official black Magister Reader's cloak, but a plain heavy
brown wool cloak such as everyone wore in the cold weather. As Melissa was bundled up the same
way, the boy who had brought her the note probably had no idea they were Readers.

She could not judge Jason's height, nor much of his build without probing. But she observed his faceтАФa
dignified face, younger than his graying hair suggested. The hair was thick and crisp, cut short in the
prevailing style. His eyes were brown, like her own, and troubled. His mouth was meant to smileтАФits
grim set now belied both the prevailing upturned lines and the tone she "heard" most of the time when she
Read him.

"Don't you want to be a Master Reader?" she asked, realizing that he was, indeed, of the right age for
testing.

"It would never have occurred to me to request testing, nor has Master Florian suggested it to me. I am a
good Reader, Melissa, well worthy of the rank of Magister. However, my powers are not exceptional.
The word is that only the most exceptional Readers are being accepted into the Council of Masters
nowтАФso why have they called for me?"

"Your healing skillsтАФoften they are allowed to compensate for other Reading powers."

"At Magister rank, yes, but not Master. IтАж wonder if this testing is somehow related to the other
matterтАФthe reason I wanted to speak with you privately today."

She realized that, indeed, nothing he had said so far warranted this strange, uncomfortable meeting. Why
could he not have called her into a privacy room? "What is the other matter?"

"The renegade Readers."

"Readers? More than one?"
"It seems that Lenardo may be in contact with Readers inside the empireтАФmay have corrupted them. A
plot is fearedтАФan attack, with Readers aiding the enemy."

"ButтАж Magister, they can't think you wouldтАФ?" She wanted to call back the words, and only made it
worse by adding, "We're so far from the border; how couldтАФ?" Then, "Forgive me. They cannot be
thinking any such thing."

"They can, and no doubt they are," Jason replied. "I brought it on myself, with my curiosity. "What need
has a healer to know about renegades and politics? The Council of Masters, in this time of peril to the
empire, has a right and a duty to discover whether my curiosity is just thatтАж or whether I am spying for
the savages."

"Oh, no! I know you're not!"