"Sheri S. Tepper - The True Game 2 - Necromancer Nine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

hard reasons which Himaggery would accept.
"Let it be only that I have a need," I whispered. "A need which is Peter's, not Darn's, not
Trandilar's. I have a Talent which is mine, also, inherited from her. I am the son of Mavin Manyshaped,
and I want to see her. Leave it at that."
"So be it, boy. So I will leave it."
He was as good as his word. He said not another word to me about staying. He took time from his
meetings and plottings to pick horses for me from his own stables and to see I was well outfitted for the
trip north to Schooltown. If I was to find Mavin, the search would begin with Mertyn, her brother, my
thalan. Once Himaggery had taken care of these details, he ignored me. Perversely, this annoyed me. It
was obvious that no one was going to blow trumpets for me when I left, and this hurt my feelings. As I
had done since I was four or five years old, I went down to the kitchens to complain to Brother Chance.
"Well, boy, you didn't expect a testimony dinner, did you? Those are both wise-old heads, and they
wouldn't call attention to you wandering off. Too dangerous for you, and they know it.''
This shamed me. They had been thinking of me after all. I changed the subject. "I thought of going
as a Dragon."
"Fool thing to do," Chance commented. "Can't think of anything more gomerous than that. What
you want is all that fire and speed and the feel of wind on your wings. All that power and swooping
about. Well, that might last half a day, if you was lucky." He grimaced at me to show what he thought of
the notion, as though his words had not conveyed quite enough. I flinched. I had learned to deal with
Himaggery and Windlow, even to some extent with Mertyn, who had taught me and arranged for my
care and protection by setting Chance to look after me, but I had never succeeded in dealing with
Chance himself. Every time I began to take myself seriously, he let me know how small a vegetable I was
in his particular stew. Whenever he spoke to me it brought back the feel of the kitchen and his horny
hands pressing cookies into mine. Well. No one liked the Dragon idea but me.
"Well, fetch-it, Chance. I am a Shifter."
"Well, fetch-it, yourself, boy. Shift into something sensible. If you're going to go find your mama, we
got to go all the way to Schooltown to ask Mertyn where to look, don't we? Change yourself into a
baggage horse. That'll be useful." He went on with our packing, interrupting himself to suggest, "You got
the Talent of that there Dorn. Why not use him. Go as a Necromancer?
"Why Dorn?" I asked and shivered. "Why not Trandilar?" Of the two, she was the more
comfortable, though that says little for comfort.
"Because if you go traveling around as a Prince or King or any one of the Rulers, you'll catch
followers like a net catches fish, and you'll be up to your gullet in Games before we get to the River. You
got three Talents, boy. You can Shift, but you don't want to Shift into something in-con-spic-u-ous. You
can Rule, but that's dangerous, being a Prince or a King. Or you can, well, Necromancers travel all over
all the time and nobody bothers them. They don't need to use the Talent. Just have it is enough."
In the end he had his way. I wore the black, broad-brimmed hat, the full cloak, the gauze mask
smeared with the death's head. It was no more uncomfortable than any other guise, but it put a weight
upon my heart. Windlow may have guessed that, for he came tottering down from his tower in the chill
mowing to tell us good-bye. "You are not pretty, my boy, but you will travel with fewer complications
this way."
"I know, Old One. Thank you for coming down to wave me away."
 "Oh, I came for more than that, lad. A message for your thalan, Mertyn. Tell him we will need his
help soon, and he will have word from the Bright Demesne." There was still that awful, pathetic look in
his eyes.
"What do you mean, Windlow? Why will you need his help?"
"There, boy. There isn't time to explain. You would have known more or less if you'd been paying
attention to what's been going on. Now is no time to become interested. Journey well." He turned and
went away without my farewell kiss, which made me grumpy. All at once, having gained my own way, I
was not sure I wanted it.