"Sheri S. Tepper - The True Game 1 - King's Blood Four" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

one, Yarrel and I the other. Behind us the bodies of the duelers rose into the air to float behind us, a
Tragamor riding before each with a Sorcerer between. Even irritated as I was, I admired the crisp way it
was done, each knowing what to do and doing it. Yarrel did not notice. His face was glorious. There
would never be anything in the world as important to Yarrel as, horses.
The Gamesman who rode beside me, one I could not identify-gold tunic embroidered with cobweb
pattern, magpie helm and gray cloak-began to talk of the ones who floated behind.
"Young Yvery and even younger Yniod, " he said, "both having conceived a passion for the Seer, Yillen
of Pouws, and having studied the madness of courtly love (much studied by them and some other few
fools in Himaggery's realm) did each claim the other had insulted the lady. She, having been in trance this
seven month, could not intervene. So was challenge uttered, and by none could they be dissuaded.
Himaggery demands that all may have free choice, and so did this occur. "
I found my voice somewhere beneath my giblets and got it out. "Which of them did the Seer love?"


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 KING'S BLOOD FOUR - Sheri S. Tepper

"Neither, She knew neither of them. They had only seen her sleeping. "
"What is this courtly love you speak of?"
The Gamesman gestured to Silkhands. "Ask your Healer friend, she knows. "
Silkhands turned a miserable, shamed face to me. "Oh, yes, the Rancelman is right. I know.. It is some
factitious wickedness which Dazzle thought up and spread among the impressionable young. She may
have read of it in some ancient book or come upon it in amusements for herself, and none will do unless
there is combat and ill feeling.. "That is why we were banished to the ruin. Three times we have lived in
the Bright Demesne, and each time Dazzle has started up some such foolishness. It does nothing but
cause trouble, dueling, death, stupidity. Each time Himaggery has sent her awayтАж"
"Her? Not you?"
"No. " She seemed almost angry that I had asked. "Not I. Not Borold. But we cannot let her live aloneтАж"
"I would, " snorted Yarrel. Of course, he had not seen Dazzle. "So long as she has you to comfort her,
why should she mend her behavior?"
"So says Himaggery, " she admitted. "But this last thing must have started ages ago.. Dazzle could not
have begun any new mischief. There has not been time. "
I mumbled something intended for comfort. We went on through the fringe of forest and out into the
clear, blue shining of the lake's edge. For a moment I did not understand what I saw rising from the earth.
Fogs spiraled from steaming springs which fed the waters. The town was scattered among these mists,
and I knew why Himaggery had taken the Lake of Yost and how it was that thousands could gather here.
"There is power here, " I said as I felt the heat.
"Yes, " Silkhands agreed. "There is plenty of power here, and not much is needed here. There is none out
there, and that is where it is always needed. It is never here I need it!" Her voice rose in a pained cry.
I said, "It hurts you! When you need to heal and have not the power, it hurts you!" The idea was quite
new to me.
"Yes. That is true for all Healers. And for all Seers, and all Demons, too. We who are the children of
Gamesmother Didir have this pain."
She was speaking of the legendary grandmother of our race. Didir was progenitress of the mental powers,
Gamesfather Tamor the progenitor of the material ones. Religion has it that all of us are descended from
these two. I was not thinking so much of. that, however, as of the idea of pain. When Tossa had been
wounded, I had felt her pain, felt her death. When Silkhands had felt pain, I, too, had felt it. What did this
pattern mean? Understand, for boys of my age-and, I suppose, for girls too, though I had no way of
knowing-the most important thing is to know what name, what talent we will have. We search for signs
of it, hints, even for auspices. We beg Seers to look ahead for us (they never will, it is forbidden). What