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

PART ONE

Chapter One

Kohan squinted into the Desert sky, watching his circling hawk. All at once
the bird plummeted to the rough scrub of the Vere Hills. Rohan held his
breath. A few moments later the hawk soared upward, a greentail clutched in
her talons. She spiraled on a thermal, then swooped down to deposit the plump
bird neatly at Rohan's feet. When she balanced on his arm again, he whistled
appreciatively; she replied with a grating coo of affection.
"She's flirting with you again," Sioned observed.
"I have that effect on ladies of taste and perception." He fed the bird a
morsel of raw meat, whistled the flight command again, and flung her smoothly
into the air. The hawk flew off to seek her own dinner.
Sioned sat down on a rock. "I assume that means Avaly of Rezeld would've had
more luck if she'd batted her lashes?"
"So that's what's been bothering you all day." Unhooking the water skin from
his belt, he took a swig and offered her some.
"It was embarrassing to watch." She drank and stoppered the skin.
"All I could think about was getting her off her knees and out of my sight as
fast as possible."
"Why did she wait nine years? It couldn't have taken that long to think up
that tale about her father's being under a diarmadhi spell like Chiana."
"Her proposed husband evidently inspired her. He wants the holding and the
title along with her highborn blood. That's the only dowry a merchant that
wealthy would care about."
"Well, he can't have them. Morlen was just waiting for a chance to betray you
and Pol, and I see no reason to reward
his daughter for it. And anyway, how could she think of marrying a man who
forced her to that performance?"
"Sioned! Wouldn't you plead on your knees for me?"
"With my aching joints? Certainly not."
He grinned down at her. "Well, I suppose you are getting old and crippled and
decrepit."
"Half a season your senior, young fellow, and don't you forget it!" She wagged
a finger at him, laughing.
He caught her hand and was about to pull her up into his arms when a screech
and a feather-rush warned him. He turned just in time to extend his right arm
to his hawk, who dug her talons into protective leather and preened.
"Jealous, too," Sioned remarked. "Goddess, doesn't she look pleased with
herself!"
They walked back through the late afternoon haze to Stronghold, entering by
the grotto passageтАФonce secret, but not anymore. Sioned lingered by the
waterfall to bathe her face and arms while Rohan returned his hawk to the
mews. This autumn, her thirty-ninth in the Desert, was the hottest she could
recall. She and Rohan had avoided summer completely this year by indulging in
a lengthy journey through Syr before going up to Dragon's Rest for the Rialla.
She'd shown him her childhood home of River Run, taken a side trip into the
Catha Hills to investigate the dragons' winter lairs, and stopped in at High
Kirat to visit her nephew Prince Kostas and his family. Many times they'd left