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

I was suddenly happy, contented, able to smile full in his face without worrying what he would say
or think when I told him why I came. "Why did you pick Chance?" I asked.
"Oh, he was a rascal of a sailor, left here by a boat which plied up and down the lakes and rivers to
the Southern Seas. I liked him. No nonsense about him and much about survival. So, I said, you stay
here in this House as cook or groom or what you will, but your job is to watch over this little one and see
he grows well."
"He did that," I said.
"He did that. Fed you cookies until your eyes bulged. Stood you up against the bullies and let you
fight it out. Speaking of which, I recall you often had a bit of trouble with Karl? Had a habit of finding
whatever would hurt the most, didn't he?"
"Oh," I said and laughed bitterly, "he did, indeed. Probably still does."
"Does, yes. Early Talent showing there. Something to do with digging out secrets, finding hidden
things. Unpleasant boy. Will be no less unpleasant in the True Game I should think. Well, Chance stood
you up to him."
"I'm grateful to you for Chance," I said. "I . . . I understand why you did not call me thalan before."
"I didn't want to endanger you, Peter. If it had been known you were my full sister's son, some oaf
would have tried to use you against me. Some oaf did it anyhow, though unwittingly." He sat silent for a
moment. "Well, lad, what brings you back to Mertyn's House? I had word you were coming, but no
word of the reason."
"I want to find Mavin."
"Ah. Are you quite sure that is what you want to do?"
"Quite sure."
"I'll help you then, if I can. You understand that I do not know where she is?"
I nodded, though until that moment I had hoped he would tell me where to find her. Still.
He went on, "If I knew where she was, any Demon who wanted to find her could simply Read her
whereabouts in my head and pass the word along to whatever Gamesman might be wanting to challenge
her. No. She's too secret an animal for that. She gives me sets of directions from time to time. That's all.
If I need to find her, I have to try to decipher them."
"But you'll tell me what they are?"
"Oh, I've written down a copy for you. She gave them to me outside Bannerwell, where we were
camped on Havajor Dike. You remember the place? Well, she came to my tent that night, after the
battle, and gave them to me. Then she pointed away northтАФwhich is important to remember, Peter,
northтАФand then she vanished."
"Vanished?"
"Went. Away. Slipped out of the tent and was gone. Took the shape of an owl and flew away, for
all I know. Vanished."
"Doesn't she ever stay? You must have grown up together as children?"
"Oh, well, by the time I was of an age to understand anything, she was almost grown, already
Talented. Still, I remember her as she was then. She was very lovely in her own person, very strange,
liking children, liking me, others my age. She did tricks and changes for us, things to make us laugh
"And she brought me to you?"
"Yes. When you were only a toddler. She said she had carried you unchanging, and nursed you,
unchanging, all those long months never changing, so that you would have something real to know and
love. But the time had come for you to be schooled, and she preferred for some reason not to do that
among Shifters. I never knew exactly why, except that she felt you would learn more and be safer here.
So, she brought you here to me, in Mertyn's House, and I lied to everyone. I said you were Festival-get
I'd found wrapped in a blanket on the doorstep. Then I tried never to think about you when there were
Demons about."
"And I never knew. No one ever knew."
"No. I was a good liar. But not a good Gamesman. I couldn't keep you away from Mandor."