"Anne Bishop - Black Jewels 00 - The Invisible Ring" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bishop Anne)

after that. But it would be enough. Had to be enough. Which meant he had to
escape tonight. Tomorrow, Raej's autumn slave auction would begin. The
witches who came to this island to buy and sell would be on the auction
grounds accompanied by hired guards, and the guards watching the pens would
be too edgy, too quick to react to anything a slave did. So tonight he would
find a way to get close enough to the official landing place outside the
fairgrounds and catch one of the Winds, those webs of psychic roadways that
allowed the Blood to travel through the Darkness. He would catch one and
ride it all the way back to Ranon's Wood. The decision made, Jared watched
the sun set and the quarter moon rise while he thought about his mother, his
father and brothers, his home . . . and the boy he used to be.

Chapter Two

Krelis closed the small wooden box Dorothea had given him, then used Craft
to vanish it. All the plans were made. There was nothing he could do but
wait. Staying in the Master's office made him feel too confined, so he left
the building that housed the First Circle guards and began walking aimlessly
across the practice fields. Thank the Darkness Dorothea hadn't demanded his
presence at dinner tonight. While his bloodlines could be traced to two of
Hayll's Hundred Families, his family on both sides was from minor branches.
He'd grown up in a small village, and he still wasn't comfortable in the
jaded, glittering aristo society that made up the social power of Hayll. A
man on guard duty during one of these functions could watch the seductions
and the games, could listen to the double-edged conversations, could observe
the dance of wealth and power without having to participate. But the Master
of the Guard was one of the three most important males in a court, and, when
required, he was expected to socialize with the people who gathered around
his Lady. He was expected to talk with the other men and dance with the
women, was expected to flirt just enough not to give offense, without
flirting so much that servicing the woman would be required. He'd already
sweated through a couple of smaller functions. He didn't need to dance on
the knife edge tonight. Leaving the practice fields, Krelis followed a
bridle path until he reached a small reflecting pool. Sitting on a stone
bench near the pool, he watched the still water. Either the former Master of
the Guard had become arrogantly foolish or he'd turned traitor. That was the
only way Krelis could explain the failed attack on the Gray Lady when she
was returning to Dena Nehele after the spring auction at Raej. It wasn't
strange that the Master hadn't led the attack. Along with the Steward and
the Consort, the Master seldom left the court unless he was accompanying his
Lady. His duties were no longer in the field. But one of those duties was to
choose the right men for an assignment. The old Master had sent a handful of
lighter-Jeweled, Fifth Circle guards and a small band of marauders to
destroy a Gray-Jeweled Queen and the escort waiting for her at the Coach
station. There had been no time to overwhelm the escort before the Gray
bitch's arrival. There had been no backup force to attack her if she tried
to escape on the Winds. There had been nothing. Only one of those
lighter-Jeweled Hayllian guards had returned to report the failure. One was
all Dorothea had needed. Well, he hadn't made that mistake. He had tame
marauder bands waiting at the Coach stations the Gray Lady would most likely