"Jennifer Roberson - CotC 4 - The House of Homana" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberson Jennifer)

It is an old Joke between us, the five years that sepa-
rate us, but for once he would not let it go. He stepped
across the dead king stag and caught my arm.

"NialL" The levity was banished from his face. "Rujho,


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I cannot pretend to know what it is to lack a Ur. But
neither can I pretend your lack does not affect me."

"Does it?" Resentment flared up instantly, surprising
even me with its intensity. But this was intrusion into an
area of my life he could not possibly understand. "Does
it affect you, lan? Does it disturb you that the warriors of
the clan refer to me as a Homanan instead of a Cheysuli?
Does it affect you that if they could, they would petition
the shar tahl to have my birth-rune scratched off the
permanent birth-lines?" His dark face went gray as death,
and I realized he had not known I was aware of what a
few of the more outspoken warriors said. "Oh, rujfw, I
know I am not alone in this. I know it must disturb
youтАФa full-fledged Cheysuli warrior and a member of
Clan CouncilтАФin particular: that the man intended to
rule after Donal lacks the gifts of the Cheysuli. How
could it not? You serve the prophecy as well as any
warrior, and yet you look at me and see a man who does
not fit. The link that was not forged." It hurt me to see
the pain in his yellow eyes; eyes some men still called
bestial. "It affects you, it affects our sister, it affects our
father. It even affects my mother.'*

lan's hand fell away from my arm. "Aislinn? How?"

His tone was unguarded; I heard the note of astonish-
ment in his voice. No, he would not expect my lack of a
Ur to affect my mother. How could it, when the Queen of
Homana was fully Homanan herself, without a drop of
Cheysuli blood?

How could he, when there was so little of affection
between them? Not hatred; never that. Not even a true
disliking of one another. MerelyтАФtoleration. A mutual
apathy.

Because my mother, the Queen, recalled too clearly
that what love my father had to offer had been given