"03 - Sunrunner's Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rawn Melanie)

"I am."

"This is going to sound awfully sentimental," she murmured. "But if this baby is a boy, I want him to grow up just like his elder brother."

Ostvel said from the doorway, "I'm sure he will, though it'll be none of my doing. My children have remarkable mothers." He crossed the room and bent to kiss the crown of her braids. "And here I thought you were simply getting fat!"

She assumed a cloyingly sweet expression, her voice all honey-wine as she replied, "At least I have a good excuse." She prodded him in the stomach.

"My belt's been in exactly the same notch since I was your age!"

Riyan grinned. Ostvel, realizing he was being teased, growled playfully down at his wife and then kissed her again. He then took the chair beside Riyan's. "Sorin's got a little expedition going up to Feruche tomorrow, Alasen. Would you mind traveling down to Stronghold without me?"

"It's already settled," Alasen replied, pouring a cup of taze for him. "I'll have more time with Arlis this way. I wanted Jo give him a while to settle in before I went to see him." She sighed and shook her head. "I can't believe my little nephew is old enough to be Rohan's squire! And I'm so relieved that Saumer agreed with Father about his fostering."

Ostvel shrugged. "A mutual grandson is no guarantee of mutual agreement on his training."

"How old is Arlis now?" Riyan asked. "Nearly eleven?"

"Yes." She poured a cup of taze for Ostvel, then leaned back and sighed. "Father thought that maybe he'd have faradhi gifts like me, but he didn't so much as bat an eyelash on the sail from Kierst-Isel." She gave an exaggerated shudder. "I only experienced it once, but

Sunrunner seasickness isn't something I ever want to go through again."

Riyan noted with interest that, for the first time in his hearing, she had admitted what she was. She must be feeling easier about it. Three years had passed since the terrifying events of the 719 Rialla, memories that could still give Riyan nightmares of death and sorceries and unspeakable pain.

"That's why she married me," Ostvel said. "To avoid another crossing."

"So Arlis isn't faradhi," Riyan mused. "That'll be a relief to the other princes."

"The stupid, prejudiced ones," Alasen said in disgust.

He shrugged. "Look at it from their point of view. I'm no bother to them. They hardly know I exist. But Maarken's going to inherit Radzyn one day and all his father's power in the Desert. As for PolЧhe makes them so nervous they practically flinch whenever he's mentioned."

Ostvel sipped at the hot drink. "There was plenty of hostility three years ago. And he wasn't even fifteen then, still only a child, completely untrained in the arts. By rights he should have gone to Goddess Keep last year."

"Sioned won't ever send him, will she?" Riyan glanced at his father.

"I'd be astounded if she did," came the frank reply.

Alasen was silent for a moment, then said softly, "How horrible it must be for AndryЧLord of Goddess Keep and not trusted by his own family to train the next High Prince as a Sunrunner."

Riyan frowned. "You saw him at the Rialla. What was he like?"

"Polite and proper and regal, just as he should be in his position and with his ancestry. And there was no trace of youth about him, Riyan. It hurt Tobin terribly to see it. So many responsibilitiesЧand so many plans kept secret! That's what they don't trust. His innovations."

"I don't hear much about that, being in the wrong camp for it." Shaking his head, he added, "I hear myself dividing us up into factions and it scares me."

Ostvel sat back, sprawling his long legs in a casual posture belied by the tension in his face. "But that's where we're all headed, isn't it? Andry on one side, Pol

on another, and suspicious princes on the third. Andrade wanted to unite the continent under a Sunrunner High Prince. Instead, we're splitting apart. And it's going to get worse as Pol gets older."