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

around to exactly where she wanted her. "I have just the girl for him.
Roelstra
DRAGON PRINCE 21
can't propose a marriage to a man who's already wed, now can he?"
The princess sagged back in her chair. "Is she pretty?" she asked forlornly.
"What's her family like?"
"Very pretty," Andrade soothed, "and very well-born. But even if she was ugly
as a she-dragon and born of a whore, she'd still be perfect for Rohan."
Andrade tossed the stripped grapestem into a bowl and smiled. "My dear Mila,
the girl has a brain."
The midday heat was suffocating. Lord Chaynal watched his father-by-marriage
battle it out with the dragon, wiped sweat from his forehead, and wondered how
long this was going to take. Blood oozed from nicks in the dragon's golden
hide, and a long slash had been cut into one wing; by its twitchings, a nerve
had been hit as well. The dragon snarled his fury as Zehava toyed with him.
But it was taking a long time to subdue the beast, and Chay was getting
worried.
The other riders were restless, too. They were still in semicircular
formation, having moved back only a little when the dragon leaped off his
perch to attack Zehava from the sand at the canyon mouth. The decision of
whether or not to charge was Chaynal's, and he was under orders not to do so
unless there was no other choice. All those men and women present had had
practice with lesser dragons, for Zehava was a generous prince and liked
everyone to come away with a tooth or talon as a souvenir of between-years
hunts. But the prince himself was the only one allowed to kill mating sires
like this one, and nobody interfered without excellent reason.
Chay began to fret, wishing for the cool sea winds of Radzyn Keep. The air
swirled around him with every angry beat of dragon wings, but the heat sucked
sweat out of him and dried it instantly on his skin, giving the air no chance
to cool the perspiration. He squinted into the canyon where merciless sunlight
reflected off the rocks, then looked away, closing his eyes for a few
heartbeats to ease the ache of glare. Shifting in his saddle, he sensed his
unease being communicated to his horse. Silver-tufted
ears flattened back and quivers chased each other through silken muscles
beneath a glossy black hide.
"Patience, Akkal," Chay murmured. "He knows what he's doing." Chay hoped so,
anyway. Much time had passed since the dragon had chosen his ground and Zehava
had drawn first blood. The prince's movements were slower and the curvettes of
his great war-stallion were growing sluggish. It appeared to Chay that the two
old warriors, dragon and prince, were evenly matched now. The dragon roared
and snapped at Zehava, whose horse barely got him out of the way in time.
Rocks clattered in the caves within the canyon, and the whimpers of waiting
females rose to a whine. Each of them was safe and nervous and anxious to be
alone with her chosen mate, calling out to him in plaintive demand for his
presence.
Akkal trembled again and Chay calmed the horse. To distract himself from
growing concern as Zehava narrowly avoided talons and teeth, Chay began to
calculate how many females would die unmated in the caves and how many eggs
would lie unfertilized once this dragon was dead. Fifteen females, perhaps,
with twenty or so eggs each, of which five or six at most might survive to