"Melanie Rawn - Dragon Prince 1 - Dragon Prince" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rawn Melanie)

leaving Andrade to get by on the brains and energy. What was delicate gold in
Milar was ruddy in Andrade; the temper for which both women were well-known
was a flashfire rage in Milar, but carefully calculated in Andrade. Milar was
perfectly happy being wife to a rather remarkable man (Andrade could admit
Zehava's virtues in private), mother to his children, and running his
fortress. Andrade would never have been content with that life. She might have
married a man through whom she could have controlled vast stretches of the
continent, but as Lady of Goddess Keep she ruled more lands indirectly than
even Roelstra. Her faradh'im, commonly called Sunrunners, were everywhere, and
through them she influenced or downright controlled every prince and lord
between the Dark and Sunrise Waters.
She supposed she bothered with Milar because of Rohan. He took after neither
of his parents in personalityтАФnor did he resemble Andrade, so it was not
herself in masculine guise she saw in him. He was unique, and she valued him
for that. Milar loved the boy devotedly, and Zehava was just as fond of Rohan,
though puzzled by him. Andrade alone understood him and had glimpsed what he
might become.
"I see your point, Andri," Milar was saying slowly. "I wish you had explained
it all clearly to begin with. We'll simply have to reject the High Prince's
offer when it comes."
Lady Andrade sighed. "How?" she asked succinctly,
wondering if her sister was entirely the fool she sometimes acted.
The princess' face, scarcely lined even after nearly thirty years in the
harshness of the Desert, wrinkled now in alarm. "An open refusal would be a
horrible insult! Roelstra would be down on us like a dragon on a yearling!"
She fretted silently for a moment, then smiled. "Zehava can win any battle. If
Roelstra dares attack, he'll slink back to Castle-Crag in total defeat!"
"You idiotl" Andrade snarled, totally out of patience. "Have you heard nothing
of what I've said? Didn't you listen to points four, five, and six?"
"I didn't listen because you didn't tell me!" Milar flared. "How can you
expect me to make a decision when you withhold information?"
"Sorry," Andrade muttered. "Very well then, point fourтАФPrince Chale of Ossetia
is in Roelstra's camp with a trade agreement they will make public at the
Rialla this year. Five, Lord Daar of Gilad Seahold needs a wife and wants a
princess. Point sixтАФand for the same reasonsтАФ that piece of offal, Prince
Vissarion of Grib, is also on Roelstra's side. Do you seriously think Zehava
can stand against all of them in addition to the allies Roelstra openly admits
to? They've all seen what you and Zehava have built here. The Desert will
jiever be a garden, but you've made parts of it into nearly that. This keep,
Chaynal's Radzyn, Tiglath and Tuath and Whitecliff ManorтАФall the work done by
Zehava's ancestors is finally bearing fruit. Don't you think they'd all love
an excuse to pluck the tree bare? An insult to a High Prince's daughter would
give them a fine reason to avenge her honor, especially if some of them are
married or betrothed to her sisters." She stopped, seeing by her twin's
stricken face that Milar at last understood the gravity of her positionтАФor,
more to the point, Rohan's.
"Andri," she breathed, "if all this is as you say, then what can we do? I
can't let Rohan marry one of Roelstra's daughtersтАФI'd be lighting his pyre!
And if we refuseтАФ"
"Oh, Rohan will be married, and soon," Andrade said, having worked her sister