"Douglas Niles - Druidhome 2 - The Coral Kingdom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niles Douglas)

For a moment, Robyn's thoughts turned to her younger daughter, Deirdre. As always, her mind raised
far more questions than it answered.
Dark-haired Deirdre had a personality that matched the color of her long hair. Distant and cool toward
her familyтАФtoward everyoneтАФthe younger princess had fostered a life in studies, scrolls, and books. She
was a young woman of great intelligence and barely concealed ambition. Often, during their childhood,
Robyn had worried about the younger girl's jealousy of her older sibling, wondering whether that emotion
would grow into the kind of hatred that could rend asunder a kingdom and a people.
Then, during the girls' adolescence, the queen's worries had lessened. Deirdre ceased to display the
overt hostility that had characterized her childhood. Though she had never become close to her sister, she
had tended to treat her with indifference rather than rage. Alicia, on the other hand, had never lacked for
trusted friends, so her sister's coldness hadn't seemed to create a void in her life.
But now, in a matter of months, Robyn's concerns had flared into full-blown fear. Something had
happened to Deirdre, something mysterious and darkly menacing. Through her studies, the young woman
had touched powers that were not meant for the casual scholar, powers that required from their wielder a
price as great as they granted.
True, Deirdre's visible use of that power had been fortuitous. She had employed it to aid Alicia in
breaking a thrall of storms and natural violence that had wracked the Moonshaes for several years. Yet in
that accomplishment her daughter's arrogance and envy had reasserted itself, so that the queen once more
feared that the spite felt by a sister could fan itself into a blaze that might drive a nation to destruction.
Robyn knew that the Moonshae Islands stood at a critical time in their long history. Only once before,
under the reign of the hero Cymrych Hugh, had the four kingdoms of the Ffolk stood united under a single
throne. Yet Cymrych Hugh had died with no clear heir to the throne, and within a generation, the isles had
again broken into political fragments, easy prey for the northmen invaders who had gradually claimed much
of the land.
Now Tristan Kendrick, the second High King to unite the Ffolk, had perished. He left a queenтАФa
strong queen, Robyn reminded herselfтАФand two daughters. Though the Ffolk, unlike the northmen, had
never disparaged the rulership of a queen simply on the basis of her sex, Robyn knew that she would have
to prove her fitness to continue the Kendrick line, and in that process, she must ensure that Alicia would
inherit the kingdom upon her own death.
Her goal seemed clear, but there were so many obstacles, and as she thought of those obstacles, she
came back to the plans that had caused her to pause, musing, at the window in the first place.
A harsh knock at the door, though not unexpected, broke Robyn's reverie. "Come in," she said.
The door opened to reveal Deirdre Kendrick. The princess's black hair floated behind her, unbound and
silky long, as she moved softly into her mother's chamber. The two women looked remarkably similar,
though the maturity and sorrow of age had unmistakably marked the mother with lines around her mouth
and eyes and a fringe of gray that had begun to lighten her long black hair. "You wished to see me?"
Deirdre said.
Robyn knew what she needed to say to her daughter, and she knew that Deirdre wouldn't like it. She
found it difficult to begin.
"Yes, my daughter. Please come here. I was enjoying the view."
Silently the princess joined her mother.
"Summer," observed the queen. "Such a vital, vibrant season. Doesn't it make you feel alive?"
Deirdre smiled, but her eyes remained hooded. "Books make me feel alive, MotherтАФand they do so
even in the dark of winter."
Robyn suppressed a sigh, turning to face her daughter squarely. "I wish to speak with you about those
books, about the forces you read about and touch. You bring a shadow around yourself. There is a
darkness that surrounds youтАФa darkness you wear about your shoulders like a cloak. It disturbs me.
You've opened the doors to places that can't help but change you. The powers you touch are very
dangerous things!"
"Of course they're dangerous! But I know how to use them, and every day I learn more!" Deirdre's