"Michelle West - Winter Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (West Michelle)

return to Riverend when I am done.
"I am taking this child with me," she told the priest. She almost lied. She almost
told him that if she didn't, he would lapse back into his state of wide-eyed
immobility. But she didn't believe it.
"Will you take him into safety, HeraldтАФ"
"Call me Kayla. Kayla Grayson."
"Will you take him into safety, Kayla? Or into danger? If you ride toward the
capital, you will find this...disease...is far more prevalent as you approach the
palace. We have had care of him for two weeks, and we are prepared to care for
him untilтАФ"
"Until he falls victim to the terrors once again? No. If I take him into danger, I
take him with me, and I knowтАФI know how to comfort a child."
"You will have your duties."
"What duty is more important than this? I will protect him. ButтАФ"
And a head appeared in the doorway; a white, large head, with deep blue eyes the
size of palms and a long, straight muzzle wearing a silver-and-blue strap and bells.
Companions had no words to offer anyone but each otherтАФand their HeraldsтАФif
the stories were true, but Darius did not need words; he butted the priest gently in
the chest, and met his eyes, unblinking.
It was the priest who looked away.
"I won't abandon you," she said softly, and hesitantly, as Riverend flashed before
her eyes. "But...but I think I understand now why I was called."
"What are you, child?"
"I don't know."
:Tell him your Gift is Empathy.:
"Darius says my Gift is Empathy."
The priest closed his eyes. "Then he is taking you to an unkind fate, Kayla."
 "Why do you say that?"
"The Empaths, the greatest of the Empaths, were the first to fall."

The town's many inns offered food and wine and water when Darius entered their
courtyards. But they were silent as they made their offers, and the fear that she had
sensed in the infirmary had extended outward in an echo that was terrible to
witness. On impulse, she said, "I have with me one of the children who was in the
cathedral infirmary. He's not very talkative," she added, as the boy shyly turned his
face into her shoulder, "but he's recovering. I know it's been bad on the town, but
as an outsider, I'm amazed at the way the town has come together to help the
fallen, even when they don't understand the disease.тАЭ
"There's hope," she added softly.
And the innkeepers, their wives, their guests, leaped at the words that she had
spoken aloud, a clear indication that eavesdropping was a way of life in any place,
be it small hold or large town.
They might have called her a liar, but she was astride a Companion, and the
Heralds did not lie.
So they breathed a sigh of relief instead. "We've been pleading for help," the
innkeeper's wife said, as she added four extra pies to their load. "But the only help
the King sent lies in the infirmary with the others. We didn't knowтАФ" She ran the
back of her hand across her eyes. "My brother's in back, same as them that you
saw. Thank you, Herald." Kayla had given up telling people that she wasn't. The
woman composed herself, although the redness of her eyes spoke of unshed tears.