"02 - The Star Scroll" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rawn Melanie)

Pol began a protest, but Meath interrupted smoothly, [ "You're very generous, and on High Princess Sioned's behalf, we accept." Refusal would have offended, and Pol did not yet know enough about being a prince to understand that. It was in the nature of most people to ; believe that highborns were special, braver and better \ than ordinary folk. They must be trusted to govern the princedoms and holdings, and if they were not better, then what hope was there? A tribute of fine silk would symbolize the belief as surely as Willa would find justification of it in her new goblet. Pol's instincts had guided him correctly there, even if he did not yet understand that he did something far more important than provide restitution for something broken.

But he did know enough to take Meath's lead. "Thank you. My mother will be very grateful. Will you be at Waes this year to see her wearing your silk?''

"Dragons couldn't keep us away, your grace." The pair swept him elegant bows, and Pol smiled. Only Meath saw the brief flash of amusement in the blue-green eyes.

Later, on the ride back to Graypearl, Meath held his tongue and wondered how to explain this to Prince Lleyn. The events themselves were straightforward enough, but he worried about the Merida and the calling of Fire. Halfway up the hill he glanced over at Pol and said, "You know, there were probably easier ways of saving yourself the expense of buying a present for your mother."

"Is that the tale you're going to tell her?"

"I just might. But what I'm really thinking about is your little display of Fire. Oh, I'm not complaining, mind. They were startled and thus didn't fight well. And you didn't even leave a burn scar on the table," he approved.

"Maybe Lady Andrade will give me my first ring," Pol replied lightly.

"And maybe you'd better tell me who taught you how to do that," Meath said, unsmiling.

"No one. I justЧI needed to distract them, and it seemed the best way."

Meath stared between his horse's ears at the road ahead. "You've the heritage on both sides, so I guess it's not surprising that you gave in to your instincts." He

reined in beneath a shade tree, and Pol did the same. Meath looked the boy full in the face, holding his gaze with deliberate intent. "Do I have to tell you how dangerous your instincts can be, my prince?"

The use of title rather than name made Po! gulp. But he could not look away from Meath's eyes. The Sunrun-ner speculated on how long he would be able to influence Pol this way. It was something all faradh 'im learned from Lady Andrade during training, this absolute concentration that captured another as surely as a dragon could spear a sheep or a deer with a single look. Holding Pol's gaze, it occurred to him that despite their coloring the boy's eyes had nothing of the sea. There was sunlit Desert sky in them, limitless blue like his father's eyes; there were emeralds, too, bright as the one his mother wore on her finger, the color of moonlight through a leaf. But not the sea, not for this son of the Desert.

Meath lifted his hands so his rings caught the light drifting down through the shade above them. "My father was a metalsmith in Gilad, and my mother was a fisherman's daughter who hated the sight of the sea. It was from her that I received the gifts that made me & faradhi. The first of these rings is for calling Fire. It took me three years of training before I earned it. I was past twenty before I was worthy of my fourth ring, and two years older than that before I received my fifth and sixth. It may be you have more of the gift than IЧbut you also have more to lose by it than I ever did."

"More to lose?" Pol frowned, bewildered. "Don't you mean more to gain?"

"No," Meath said in harsh tones. "You were born to two kinds of power. You're a prince and one day you'll be a Sunrunner."

"And I could lose all of it, is that what you mean?" the boy whispered, his fingers white-knuckled around the reins. "MeathЧ"

"Yes?" He lowered his hands to the horse's neck.

"You're right to scare me with it. Did you do the same for Maarken?''

"I did." He consciously relinquished control of the blue-green eyes, and the blond head bent. Meath knew this lesson ought to have come from SionedЧwho herself

knew both kinds of power. But the right time was now, and he had to make sure the right lesson was learned. "It scared me, too," he admitted. "Every day of my life, until I learned to know myself. That's what the training at Goddess Keep is for, Pol. It teaches you how to use your instincts and your powers, but it also teaches you when not to use them. It's the same way with your training as a squire and a knight. You're learning your powers as a warrior and a prince."

"But there's one thing a prince sometimes has to do that Sunrunners are forbidden."

Meath nodded. "Faradh'im must never use the gift to kill. When you know and trust yourself, Pol, you won't be afraid." He brushed the boy's shoulder with his fingertips, rings glinting. "Come, let's ride on. It's getting late."

They were nearly to the gates when Pol spoke again. "Meath? Did I do the right thing today?"

"Is that for me to say, or you?"

"I thinkЧI think I did. No, I'm sure of it." As they rode below the stone archway he added, "But you know, it's the stupidest thing. I can't stop thinking about Willa's broken goblet."