"Katherine Kurtz - 02 - King's Justice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kurtz Katherine)

The glances the two exchanged told Kelson that they knew precisely what he was talking about. Clearly Richenda did not-which meant that Arilan probably had not caught any inkling of Nigel's experience either. Dhugal, who would not have been expected to read much detail from outside the circle, even if trained-which he was not-looked predictably mystified.
Richenda's expression of speculation turned to comprehension as she laid a hand on her husband's forearm to share his memory of the experience.
"Ah, Saint Camber," she breathed. "I should have known."
Dhugal gulped and looked aghast at all of them.
"Saint Camber? What is she talking about?"
"Nigel had a-vision during the ritual," Morgan said, dragging his eyes from Richenda's to look at Dhugal. "Duncan and I caught a little of the spillover from Kelson."
"A vision? Of Saint Camber?"
Duncan nodded. "We've-ah-come into contact with him before. I must say, I certainly wasn't expecting him tonight."
"A-saint?" Dhugal only just managed to swallow.
Kelson sighed and gestured wearily toward Duncan. "Do you want to show him, Duncan?"
"Why can't you show me?" Dhugal asked plaintively, before Duncan could respond. "Unless you're too tired, that is. But I'm never going to learn if I only work with my father."
The request could not have been made a few months before, for it was only with the new year that Dhugal had learned to lower his shields even for Duncan. He had grown far more adept since then, working with Morgan, Kelson, and occasionally Richenda, but rapport with anyone besides Duncan still required far more effort on his part than he thought it should. Kelson knew that. So despite his fatigue, he smiled and held out his hand.
As soon as their fingers met, he could feel Dhugal's shields collapse-saw the sun-amber eyes go a little glassy as Dhugal slipped firmly, if not easily, into rapport.
He did not spare him, though. Cementing the link, he bore deep into Dhugal's mind and began to filter the memory through, beginning with Nigel's sensations as the drug took effect and his eyes began to go out of focus, and not letting up as the pain began to build along with other sensations.
Dhugal gasped and closed his eyes as the feed became more intense, inadvertently drawing back just a little, but Kelson merely shifted his hand around to grasp Dhugal's wrist and held the contact. As the link steadied, he fed the last set of images: the face against the fog, compassionate and kind; quicksilver eyes, silver-gilt hair; and the hand whose touch brought oblivion. With them he sent a montage of the other times he had seen that face, and the images of Morgan's and Duncan's sightings.
When he let the link dissolve, though not the physical one of hand to hand, Dhugal exhaled in a long, slow sigh and did not move or even open his eyes for several seconds. When he did raise his head to look at Kelson, his eyes were moist with tears.
"I-had no idea," he murmured, after a few more seconds, finally raising both hands to wipe surreptitiously at his eyes. "Do you-really think it was Saint Camber?"
Duncan smiled sympathetically and exchanged a glance with Morgan.
"Well, at least we know it wasn't Stefan Coram this time, don't we?" he said. "And I don't think it was Arilan, either."
"God, no!" Kelson said, sitting back with an explosive sigh and crossing his arms on his chest. "I don't think he caught any of it. Richenda didn't, after all. And after it was over, I was terribly anxious that he not pick up something about it from me or the two of you, before I could get rid of him. Somehow, I didn't want him to share that."
"Perhaps because you knew he was going to the Council after he left," Morgan ventured.
"Perhaps." Kelson shook his head and sighed again. "What do you think, though? All of you. Was it Saint Camber?"
"Why not ask the man who saw it firsthand?" Duncan murmured, laying a hand on the forehead of the reviving Nigel. "Nigel, are you with us again? How do you feel?"
With a little moan, Nigel opened his eyes and turned his head toward Kelson, not fighting the light control Duncan extended to block any residual pain.
"Kelson," he murmured. "God, what an incredible experience! I had no idea. ..."
Kelson grinned and laid his hand on his uncle's, glancing briefly at Duncan to shift control.
"I know. You weathered everything well, though. Do you remember any details?"
Nigel's lips parted in a slow, lazy half-smile, the grey Haldane eyes dreamy and still a little focused in some other world.
"I thought I was going to die," he said softly. "And then-you're not going to believe this-I think Saint Camber saved my life. Or at least my sanity." He turned his head to look at the rest of them searchingly, then back at Kelson. "He did. And I am not going mad now-am I?"
Slowly Kelson shook his head. "No, Uncle, you're not going mad. I saw him too. Alaric and Duncan-have seen him before."
"Somehow that ought to alarm me," Nigel replied, "but it doesn't. Your doing?"
"In part," Kelson admitted. "But in part, I think it goes along with what else has happened to you. Camber seems to have an affinity for us Haldanes. Now, perhaps, you understand better why I want to know more about him-maybe even restore his cult here in Gwynedd."
"I shan't argue that," Nigel answered, around a yawn. "'M too sleepy."
"The expected response," Kelson replied, giving the hand a squeeze and getting to his feet. "Are you ready to go back to your quarters?"
Nigel rose without help, if a trifle unsteadily, and gave another enormous yawn. "I think I'll sleep for a week."
"No, only until morning," Duncan said, grinning as he laid an arm around Dhugal's shoulders. "Dhugal and I leave for Kierney tomorrow, and you must see us off."
"Oh, aye," Nigel mumbled.
"Meraude's going to think he's drunk," Morgan muttered under his breath.
"Then, best she have reason to think he's been drinking," Richenda replied. Quickly she poured a cup of wine and put it in the swaying Nigel's hand. "Drink it down, Nigel. You'll sleep the better for it, too."
Nigel obeyed without hesitation, setting the empty cup back in Richenda's hand when he had finished. After he and Kelson had gone, Morgan sat down in the chair Kelson had vacated and pulled his wife down on his lap. She laughed lightly, and Duncan poured wine for all of them.
"Thank God that's over," Morgan said, lifting his cup in salute when everyone had wine. "Shall we drink to Saint Camber, King Kelson, and our fine Haldane heir?"
"To Camber, Kelson, and Nigel," Duncan agreed, raising his own cup as Richenda and Dhugal did the same.
"But how much will he remember?" Dhugal wondered, when the toast had been drunk.

"It's unclear just how much he'll remember," Arilan was saying at that very moment, addressing the other members of the Camberian Council. "He knows me as Deryni, of course, from the Portal construction at Llyndruth Meadows, but Kelson and I agreed at the time that a block should be placed to prevent him disclosing my identity to anyone else. That's held, of course."
Old Vivienne, even more irascible this evening than was usually her wont, allowed herself a sour smile. "Thank God you had the good sense to do that-and to erase that Warm person's memory of the incident altogether. I could have told you he would bolt again, once the immediate crisis of the war with Wencit had passed."
"It's true we've not heard much of Warin in the past year," Laran said, tapping his fingertips lightly together. "As a physician, I would like to have explored his healing gifts more thoroughly. Unfortunately, no one seems to know what's become of him."
"Good riddance, if you ask me," Kyri said with a toss of her flame-colored hair. "Healing by the power of God, indeed! We don't need that kind of superstitious nonsense!"
"However he does it, he does it," Arilan said dryly. "In any case, I hardly think Warm de Grey is the issue here. We came to discuss Prince Nigel, as I recall. I suspect that our Tiercel, at least, is bursting to hear more of the new Haldane heir-though he will keep his peace until I have finished telling you of it, I feel certain," he concluded emphatically, flashing a brief but adamant glance of warning across the table.
Tiercel, on the brink of an objection, thought better of it and subsided, to the obvious relief of more than one person seated at the table.