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

//GoodтАФlet the experience lead you to seek answers, and you will make a fine healer one day.
Meanwhile, you are now off duty. Find something to keep you from brooding.//

//I am going to visit a friend.//

But even Alethia could not cheer Melissa. Her house was a lovely cottage surrounded with a flower and
herb garden; her little boy was a tow-haired charmerтАФbut all Melissa could think of was the girl who
had died.

She picked at the lunch Alethia served, and tried to be politeтАж until finally, seeing the dismay in her
friend's eyes, she confessed, "This morning one of my patients died. It's the first time, Alethia, but I know
it won't be the last. I'm no good as company today."
"Oh, Melissa, how terrible! I understandтАФbut you shouldn't go back to the hospital. Why don't you go
down to the beach for a while? I'll bring Primus down to play in the sand after you've had some time to
your-, self."

It. was a hot summer day, but the breeze along the shore made it pleasant to stroll. For a while Melissa
lost herself in the sound of the water, the screech of the gulls. Approaching no one, she watched pelicans
dive for fish, and children build castles. Her unadorned white tunic marked her as a Reader in training; no
one approached her.

The solitude didn't help much; her mind went back over every step of the treatment she had given her pa
dent. First she had tried medicines. The herbalist had advised her at every stepтАФbut should she have
accepted his concoctions routinely? She had had training in herbsтАж but he had spent his life studying
them. Had she decided on surgery too soon? Too late? Jason had agreed with her decisionтАФbecause it
was the best decision, or because it really made no difference?

She felt sticky. Her bare arms were beaded with sweat, and freckles had sprung out on them in the heat
of the sun. Her skin was turning pink; she would have a nasty sunburn if she didn't get off the glaring
sand.

She wasn't ready to go back to Alethia's, but she saw deep shade under the pier. The rocks would be
awash at high tide, but it was out at the moment, leaving a pocket of cool shade there. The sand was
damp in the cavelike space, but the rocks were dry. She climbed up, using physical activity to tire herself
out, as if she could thus tire her mind out from its ceaseless circling.

Her climb brought her up close to the pier, the boards just a short distance over her head. She leaned
back in an unexpectedly comfortable niche in the rock, and watched the striped patterns shift as clouds
passed overhead, birds swooped by, and occasionally a person walked above her, unaware. At the end
of the pier some people were fishing.

Then someone stopped, almost over her head. She could not see through the cracks in the boards, and
she didn't want to Read. Perhaps the person would go away.

But no, the person sat down on the edge of the pier, legs dangling over the side. Male legs, and just the
edge of his short summer tunic, white, bordered in black. A Reader! From the hospital, no doubt;
someone in the two top ranks. No cloak in today's heat to tell her whether he was Magister or MasterтАж
and she hesitated to Read him, to tell him she was there. They were not exactly face to faceтАФbut she
was not sure what the rules would say even about face to feet!