"Kate Elliott - Jaran 4 - The Law of Becoming" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elliott Kate)

to herself. She smelled meat cooking. A hawk screamed above, and she tilted her head back to watch
it soar on the cold blue bell of the sky. Already it was warm. By afternoon the camp would be well
sunk into summer stupor; that was why everyone was so active now, in the cool of the morning. The
bright spiral of the tents wound out before her, losing shape as she neared the bottom of the rise and
the camp rose up and took shape as an inviting maze before her.

A whoop startled her out of her thoughts. She held her ground against the charge of three
horsemen. Girls, to be more exact, on what were supposed to be quiet old sleeper horses. Her
daughter grinned at her as she galloped by, chasing her reckless cousin. Tess winced. She could not
get used to that child riding that way at such an age. She wasn't even eight yet.

At a more sedate pace, riding a kind of distant herd on the trio, came another rider. He pulled up
beside Tess and swung down in order to give her a kiss.

"Your daughter is wild," she said accusingly.

"She is not!" Ilya laughed. "She is merely determined. Lara is the wild one, as you well know.
Natalia and Sofia are just trying to keep up with her."

"Lara is wild because her father spoils her," said Tess, determined to have a pleasant argument with
her husband.

"Just as I spoil Natalia?" asked Ilya. Then he grinned, knowing full well what she was about. He
caught her face between his hands and stared soulfully down at her. "No more than I spoil you, my
heart."

Tess rolled her eyes. "You're impossible to argue with when you're in this kind of a mood." But she
kissed him anyway and then greeted his stallion, Kriye, who nosed at her sleeve, affronted by her lack
of attention to him. He was an incredibly vain horse, as he, of course, had every right to be, and smart
enough to know what he deserved.

They walked along, following in the general direction the girls had taken.

"I saw a rider coming in," Tess said. "What news?"

"He rode from Yaroslav Sakhalin's army," said Ilya. "Sakhalin has received submission from the
prince of Hereti-Manas, but he has reports that the prince of the neighboring land of Gelasti is raising
an army, perhaps with Mircassian soldiers among them."

"Does the Mircassian king intend to support Gelasti?" Then she shrugged. "Well, why not? He
hopes they will act as a buffer. If you are forced to waste your strength on Gelasti and the neighboring
principalities, then it will go harder once the main force of Mircassia's army takes the field against
you."

"It isn't that simple," began Ilya. She gave him a look. "But I feel sure," he added hastily, "that you
have more to say."

"No. Not right now. I want to speak again with the merchant from Greater Manas who arrived
here last month. The better we understand the relationships between the princely houses of the Yos
princedoms, the better we will be able to exploit what seems to me are any number of internecine