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

S Jennifer Roherson

Niall sighed deeply, frowning down at the street far
below the curtain wall, and the smooth earthwork ridge
that girded the lower portions of the thick wall. He could
hear the distant sounds of celebration: faint ringing tam-
bors of the street-dancers; cries of stall-merchants; shouts
and screams of children in their finery, turned loose to
play in crowded streets and alleys.

Dead so long, my jehan. He readily acknowledged the
still familiar pain. There was grief. Regret. Even bitter-
ness, that a man so strong and healthy as his father
should throw his life away.

Homanan thinking, he told himself wryly, made aware
yet again of the division in his attitudes; how pervasive
that division could be. Have you forgotten the oaths you
made when you accepted the responsibilities of the lir-
bond before Clan Council?

No. Of course he had not forgotten. But it was difficult
to be two men at once: one, born of a Homanan mother,
who was the daughter of a king; the other born of a
Cheysuli shapechanger, a warrior with a lir, and claiming
all the magic the gods had given the race.

Automatically he looked for Serri, but the wolf was
not with him. His lips tightened in annoyance. How
could he have forgotten Serri was in the royal apartments?

Because, he told himself ironically, in a spasm of de-
fensiveness, with all the toasting going on, it is fortunate
you can remember your own name, let alone Serri's
whereabouts.

Still, it displeased him that he could forget for even a
moment, A sign of age, he wondered?

Niall abruptly laughed aloud. Perhaps. No doubt his
children would agree he was aging, but he thought not. At
forty, there were decades ahead of him still.

And then he recalled that his own father had not been
so much older than forty when the loss of his lir had
ended his life. His mother as well was gone; Aislinn,
Queen of Homana, had died ten years after Donal. Some
said of grief that grew too strong.

He stopped the laughter. Memories welled up. Most of