"05 - A Pride of Princes (b)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberson Jennifer)

his patience was nearly ended.

"A little longer," she said. "Surely you can wait."

"No. I have waited- I am done with waiting." He
smiled his beautiful, beguiling smile. "LillithЧI am
hungry."

"Time," she said. "We have all the years of our lives."

"They do not. They are human, even if Cheysuli. They
die. They live seventy, eighty years, and they die. While
we are still but children."

"You are still a child." Lillith laughed, and the girdle
chimed. "The last time I counted mine, my years were
nearly two hundred."

He grunted, unimpressed; he was young in years, com-
pared to her, but his power grew every day. "I have need
of them, Lillith. The sons are no longer infants, no
longer boys. They are men. Warriors. If we wait much
longerЧ"

"But we will." Lillith shrugged naked shoulders. "We
will wait as long as we must, and longer. Until the time is
right."

"Twenty years, Lillith!" His shout reverberated in the
hidden shadows of the cavern. "Twenty years since Niall
thwarted me."

"Twenty years is but half a day to us." But she saw his
frustration and felt a measure of her own. "I know. I
know, Strahan ... I weary of it, also. But we are close.
The game beginsЧall of the pieces are in place. As you
say, now they are of an age to make a difference."

"Of an age to serve me well." In the light, his mis-
matched eyes were eerie. "I want them. I want them
here, within the walls of Valgaard, so I may make them
mine. Mine to rule, as I will have them rule." He laughed
suddenly, and their eyes locked in perfect accordance
across the Gate of Asar-Suti. "When they are mine,
Niall's sons, I will set them on their thrones, all three of
them ... I will take their lir and take their minds, all
three of them, making them faithful Ihlini minionsЧ" He

4 Jennifer Koberson