"Debra Doyle & James MacDonald - Mageworlds 01 - The Price of the Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doyle Debra)

and then in the heart of the galaxy itself. And in the opening skirmishes of what became the Magewar, the
once-distrusted Adepts became humanity’s chief defenders against the power of the Mageworlds.

Now Beka Rosselin-Metadi glanced over at Master Ransome as they walked through
Waycross’s narrow streets. “Mother’s up to something,” she said, “and I don’t like it. Are you going to
tell me what’s going on, or not?”

Ransome shook his head. “The docking bay isn’t far.”

She bit her lip and said nothing. A few minutes later they reached the low-walled, roofless
enclosure where Warhammer’s flattened disk shape loomed against the white glow of the dock lights.
Beka paused in the entrance to the bay.

“Damn, but she’s still a pretty ship,” she said, more to herself than to her companion. “Makes
Claw Hard look like a flying rock. Did Dadda bring her in alone?”

“Not quite,” said Ransome. “I was copilot.”

“Just like old times,” said Beka, as they crossed the open bay toward the ship. In her fighting
days, the ’Hammer had carried a full crew: pilot, copilot, engineer, and a pair of gunners. But Jos Metadi
had flown Warhammer solo after the long conflict had ended, and had taught all three of his children to
do the same.

Beka smiled a little in spite of herself. Ari and Owen never loved it like I did, though-and I
could fly rings around them both from the moment I was old enough to start learning. The smile
faded as quickly as it had come. I wonder if Dadda would have taught me, if he’d known what I was
going to do with all those lessons?

She hesitated at the foot of the lowered ramp, and looked at her father’s onetime copilot and
oldest friend.

“Master Ransome, can you tell me what he wants?”

The Adept shook his head. In the shadow of Warhammer’s bulk, she couldn’t make out his
expression. She shrugged, and went on up the ramp.

The ship’s door was open, and the faint glow of a force field stretched across the gap. Master
Ransome reached out one hand toward it, and the light faded. He gestured at her to go ahead. She
stepped through with Master Ransome following a staff-length behind. The air brightened again behind
them.

Beka made her way forward to the ’Hammer’s dimly lit common room. A lean, dark-clad figure
half-lounged in a chair at the mess table: Jos Metadi, once captain of the privateer ship Warhammer,
now Commanding General of the Republic’s Space Force. Marriage to Perada Rosselin had given him
the rank-in the old days before the Magewar, “General of the Armies” had been one of the honorifics
granted by custom to the consort of the Domina of Entibor-but Metadi’s own formidable talents had
made the courtesy title into a powerful reality.

His chair spun round as the first footstep sounded on the common-room floor, and a small but
deadly blaster appeared in the General’s hand. After a moment the blaster disappeared again into its