"Paul Thompson - [Elven Nations Trilogy 1] - Firstborn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Thompson Paul B)

Kith-Kanan felt again the deep wound he'd suffered on her account.
"Go with you?" Hermathya said in genuine confusion. "Go where?"
"Does it matter?"
She pushed her long hair away from her face. "And what of Sithas?"
"He doesn't love you," Kith-Kanan said.
"Nor do I love him, but he is my betrothed now."
Kith-Kanan couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You mean, you
wantto marry him?"
"Yes, I do."
Kith-Kanan blundered backward to the window. He sat down hard on
the sill. It seemed as though his legs would not work right. The cool night
air washed over him, and he breathed deeply.
"You cannot mean it. What about us? I thought you loved me!"
Hermathya walked into the edge of the shaft of moonlight. "I do,
Kith. But the gods have decided that I shall be the wife of the next Speaker
of the Stars." A note of pride crept into her voice.
"This is madness!" Kith-Kanan burst out. "It was my father who
decided this marriage, not the gods!"
"We are all only instruments of the gods," she said coolly. "I love
you, Kith, but the time has come to lay aside pranks and secret garden
passions. I have spoken with my father, with your father. You and I had an
exciting time together, we dreamed beautiful dreams. But that's all they
wereтАУdreams. It's time to wake up now and think of the future. Of the
future of all Silvanesti."
All Kith-Kanan could think of at this moment was his own future. "I
can't live without you, Thya," he said weakly.
"Yes, you can. You may not know it yet, but you can." She came
toward him, and the moonlight made her nightdress no more than a
cobweb. Kith-Kanan squeezed his eyes shut and balled his hands into tight
fists.
"Please," Hermathya said. "Accept what will happen. We can still be
close." Her warm hand touched his cold, dry cheek.
Kith-Kanan seized her wrist and shoved her away. "I cannot accept
it," he said tersely, stepping up on the windowsill. "Farewell, Lady
Hermathya. May your life be green and golden."
The irony of his words was not lost on her. 'May your life be green
and golden' was what elven commoners said when taking leave of their
lords.
Kith-Kanan shouldered his sack and slipped over the stone ledge.
Hermathya stood for several seconds, gazing at the empty window. When
the tears came she did not fight them.
*****
Faithful Arcuballis was his only companion now. Kith-Kanan tied the
sack to the saddle pillion and stuck the boar spear into the lance cup by his
right stirrup. He mounted Arcuballis, strapped himself to the saddle, and
turned the beast's head into the wind.
"Fly!" he cried, touching his heels into the griffon's brawny breast.
"Fly!"
Arcuballis unfolded its wings and sprang into the air. Kith-Kanan
whistled, and the griffon uttered its shrill cry. The least he could do,