"Sorcerer's Son" - читать интересную книгу автора (Phyllis Eisenstein)

There are flaws and flaws. As long as the ring remains unbroken, minor imperfections are unimportant.”

He circled the stool on which she sat and then, from behind, he fingered one of her blond braids. “I think not, my Gildrum. I think these things are subtler than you know.

Or than you will admit. I have never asked your advice on ring-making, though you give it freely enough. As well ask a wild beast the best sort of trap to build for its littermates.”

“Don’t you trust me, lord?” asked Gildrum; her lips quirking in a smile.

“I trust you in many things. Other things, my Gildrum. We have been together many years, and I think I know you well enough by now.”

“Do you, lord?”

“You think not? You think you can surprise me?”

She turned toward him and laid her hand lightly on his shoulder. Her fingers perceived the golden shirt that lay beneath his tunic, though no human skin would have been so sensitive. “Would you be surprised to know that I wish my freedom?”

“So.” He slid his arms about her waist. “My Gildrum wishes to be free of me.”

“We have been together many years, lord. But you have better servants than I.”

“None.”

She nodded vehemently and grasped his ring-laden hands. “You have not fingers enough to wear all your servants. Where will you put this new ring? In the drawer with the others?”

“You are the first and the best,” he said, drawing her down from the stool. She stood still in his embrace, her head against his chest, and she could hear his heart beat slow and steady in his breast. “What would I do without you, my Gildrum?”

“You could give another this form.”

“But another would not be you.”

She pushed away from him gently. “After all these years, my lord, have we not, in some sense, become friends?”

“Of course we have.”

“And would you deny a friend freedom?”

Rezhyk shook his head slowly and, clasping his hands behind his back, walked a few steps away from her. “It would not surprise me, my Gildrum, if a human slave wanted freedom. Humans always want all manner of ridiculous things. But what would you do if you were free? You find the human world interesting, yet without me you would have no place in it, nothing to do, nowhere to go, no reason for being here. And if you went back to your own world, you would find it much changed, I promise you. Many of your old friends would be gone, claimed by other sorcerers, and to those who were left, you would be a stranger. You have lived long among us; you are almost human in many ways.” He looked sidelong at her. “You are neither human nor demon now, my Gildrum.

What else could you be but a sorcerer’s servant? Where else would you be content?”

“I would find some place for myself, somehow, somewhere, my lord.”

He stretched his arms out to her. “Have I not been good to you, my Gildrum?”

“You have, my lord, but still… I have served your will, not my own.”

“I need you, Gildrum.”

“I think not, lord.”