"Andre Norton & Lackey, Mercedes - Elvenbane 1 -The Elvenbane" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

Shed skin carried the old scales with it--she supposed one could eat one's
old skin, but that seemed so barbaric, somehow.

This ruin was perilously close to one of the elven trade routes, but it should
be possible to mine the deposits with scouts in the air.

Alara's thoughts darkened as she scanned the trade route for elven minds, or
the blankness that meant collared slaves and bondsmen. So far the Kin had
been both lucky and careful. Elvenkind did not know that they truly existed.
And the Elders were right and Father Dragon was wrong, she thought. They
must never learn that dragons existed. One at a time, even with magic to aid
them, the elves were no match for one of the Kin... but if elves came upon
the Kin in force...

If she had not been stone, the spines on her neck would have risen. She
remembered all too clearly her encounters with elves, moments when they
had caught her on the ground, in draconic shape. Only shifting quickly into
elven form, and presenting the effect as an illusion, had saved her.

Sightings in the air presented no problem; in fact, that was something of a
game with the younger dragons--they would find a remote spot with only a
single elven observer, and shift briefly into dragon-shape, then land when
they knew they had been spotted. Once on the ground, they would shift
again; into some animal, or into elven form. When the observer came
looking for the dragon, the "elf" he encountered would deny having seen any
such thing.

Only once had a dragon made the mistake of shifting into human form for an
encounter.

Alara felt herself starting to shift back, her anger overcoming her control of
her form.

Shoronuralasea would never walk without a limp after that encounter, but
there was one less elf in the world.
A few such inescapable confrontations had taught dragons that the elves, for
all their power, were vulnerable in curious ways. The alkali of the water the
dragons preferred was secreted into poison sacs in their claws--and the
merest scratch from a dragon's talon, even unvenomed, was enough to send
an elf into a shock-reaction.

And if she had to, she thought grimly, yet with an odd satisfaction, let one of
them get within touching distance or between her wings, and there would be
nothing left to question.

That led to thoughts of impatience. She welcomed and wanted this child, but
there were so many things she dared not do--size-shifting was not
encouraged during most of pregnancy, and for good reason. To shift size
meant that one would have to shift a great deal of mass into the Out, and
such a shift could have dire consequences to a developing child. Alara