"Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon - Mage Wars 01 - The Black Gryphon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

know who ssset them up for herrr." Setting someone up for a triple kill took almost as much skill and
more courage than actually making the kills.
"That's just it, Black Gryphon," Loren said, face practically glowing. "She did it by herself. Alone. It
was supposed to be a safe area; as thin as my patrols are spread, we thought it was reasonable to fly
safe areas in singles instead of pairs, to give the younger or smaller gryphons experience without risking
them too much. Her name is Zhaneel."
To destroy three makaar was remarkable; to destroy three at once was uncommon even among
experienced frontliners. Who is this "Zhaneel?" he thought, beak agape with surprise. And why have I
never heard of her before this?
From the dumbfounded look on his face, Urtho's surprise was just as great as Skan's, and that was
astonishing in itself. The gryphons were his favorite creations, and he knew and kept track of every
promising youngster. Yet he did not appear to know of this one.
"You mussst bring herrr herrre," Skan said imperiously before Urtho could speak.
Loren looked to Urtho for permission first. When the mage nodded, he pushed back the tent flap
and stalked out into the sunset-reddened dust and activity of the camp.
He returned much more quickly than Skan would have expected, though not too soon for the
gryphon's impatient nature. He had bolted the last of his meal and called the hertasi to come take the
remains away and light the lamps before they arrived, partially to be able to devote all of his attention to
the visitors, and partially out of a wish to be seen at his best, limited though that "best" might be at the
moment. He hardly presented a gallant sight—swathed in bandages, propped up by pillows, and without
having had a proper bath in days. Still, Gesten had groomed him as best he could manage, and it did not
do to be presented to a brave lady with the leavings of a greedy meal in front of him.
You just want to look good for the lady, vain bird. As if you want to be sure that you could
add her to your harem if you wanted, like a collector of figurines lusting after yet another little
statue.
Still, he didn't want her to think that he was some kind of ragged-tailed hooligan. The gods only
knew what she'd heard about him; Drake and Gesten wouldn't repeat half of the stories they said they'd
heard about him. But then again, he had only their word for the fact that they'd heard these stories at
all....
It was a good thing that this was a relatively large tent, made for two gryphons as patients, and only
holding Skan at the moment; once Commander Loren brought his young gryphon in, things became just a
little crowded.
"This is Zhaneel, my lords," Loren said formally. "Lord Urtho, Skandranon, this is young Zhaneel,
who today disposed of three makaar single-handedly."
While Urtho made the usual congratulatory speech, Skandranon kept very quiet and examined
Zhaneel. She was small and lightly built, with a deep keelbone but narrow chest. Her ear-tufts were
compact and dainty, her feathers very smooth, and she had no neck-ruff at all. In color she was a light
brown with a dusty-gold edge to her primaries; like most gryphons except the unassigned, her primary
feathers had been bleached, then dipped in the colors of her wing—in this case, red and gold. On her
head and face, she had malar-stripes of a slightly darker brown, and eye-markings flowing down her
cheeks, like soft-edged tear tracks.
While Loren and Urtho spoke, she kept her head down and turned to the side, as if shy or
embarrassed—the gryphon equivalent of blushing. Was she simply shy, or was she truly uncomfortable in
their presence? Most of the gryphons that Skan knew might have been subdued in the presence of their
overlord and creator, but they wouldn't have acted like this.
When Loren finally coaxed her to speak, her voice was low and soft, and she spoke in simple
sentences with a great deal of hissing and trilling—and yet it was not because she was stupid. A stupid
gryphon would not have been able to do what she had done. It was as if she simply could not get the
words past her shyness.
"It wasss nothing," she insisted. "I only fly high, verrry high. Sssaferrrr it isss. Makaarrr cannot fly