"Charles Ingrid - The Sand Wars 06 - Challenge Met" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ingrid Charles)

"And what about you, milady? Is it a chance you want him to take? Will
you chance losing him? An imprint from a year or two ago is nothing—but
this—his memories may not integrate. He may remember his life then, and
nothing now. What of you, Amber? Are you ready and willing to be
forgotten?"

She clenched her teeth. Jack would not, could not, forget her. But her mind
trembled at the thought. Rather than give Baadluster the satisfaction of
knowing he'd shaken her, she said nothing.
 Baadluster waited long silent moments, then gave a bleak smile. "We are
allies, Milady Amber, uneasy confederates, perhaps, but entangled
nonetheless. I urge you to be selfish now, for whatever reasons you have,
because we both desire the same result. Think on it." He paused another
long moment, heard nothing forthcoming from Amber, turned on his heels
and left with that hard smile still on his face.

She watched his back until he was no longer in view. Not until he was
gone—as far from her senses as from her sight, did she let his words touch
her.

Not that Jack had many choices in the future for himself or for her now.
Perhaps Jack had been fighting Thraks so long that he was incapable of
accepting their alliance—or perhaps he was right, and the mysterious,
threatening Ash-Farel was not the current enemy but a new race to be
contacted and negotiated with despite their reputation as the Thraks' oldest
and most deadly foe.

Amber let her thoughts sink into her despair. She was under no illusion
that anything Jack did here and now was voluntary. What choice did they
have? She knew the rumors permeating the ranks of his battalions. Coward.
Traitor. Murderer. The emperor had brought him back in shackles.

Publicly Jack was dead. His emperor could do anything he wanted to
Jack without fear of reprisal. But the man who thought that of Storm was
greatly mistaken.

The panel before Amber opened suddenly, startling her and sending her
thoughts scattering like dry leaves before a cold autumn wind. The
emerging doctors blocked her view of Jack and they talked among
themselves as they passed her, ignoring her presence.

"Remarkable condition, but I'd like to see those toe buds done before he
leaves… the scar tissue will only continue to thicken until the point where
we can't consider that option—"

"Forget the implants, he balances well enough without those digits. It's
the mental profile that worries me, but for a man who was chilled down for
more than half his lifetime, he spikes well enough, I guess. I wonder if
Pepys knows what he's gotten into…"