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

thing we can't do for you—grow new feathers."
"You're the Healer," Skan replied philosophically. Then he looked sheepishly at Amberdrake out of
the corner of his eye. "I have to apologize to you, Drake. Again, I mean. The apology I gave you
yesterday wasn't exactly sincere." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I treated you badly
yesterday. It wasn't fair, and it wasn't right. My only defense is that I was in pain, and I'm not at my best
when I hurt."
Amberdrake snorted. "Not at your best? Skan, you could give a makaar lessons in surliness!" But
he smiled and scratched Skan's ear-tufts, while the gryphon feigned indignation. "That's all right; I'm not a
good patient either, you know. It's just a good thing I'm not hurt or sick very often, or I'd probably lose
Gesten."
"Not Gesten, he enjoys suffering. He enjoys letting you know he's suffering even more," Skan
replied wickedly—and accurately. "What's happening out there? Nobody tells me anything; they're afraid
I might not want to heal up."
"Ma'ar's forces threw back our counterattack," Amberdrake told him, knowing that if he didn't,
Skan would find some other way of getting the information. "We've lost the Pass, for now at least, unless
Urtho can come up with some way of dislodging them."
Skan shook his massive head and sighed. "I can't see how, Drake. Stelvi was built well, as
impregnable as possible, with water supplies in every part of the fortress. That was part of the reason
why no one took an attack there seriously." He stared at the canvas wall of his tent, as if by sheer force
of will he could see beyond it to the Pass. "So it's to be another retreat, then. Eventually abandoning the
Tower, if this goes on."
Amberdrake nodded. "I'm afraid so."
"Damn them." Skan glared at the tent wall until Amberdrake was afraid he might burn a hole in it.
Then he shook his head, and when he turned back to Amberdrake, his eyes were clear, although
wrinkles betrayed a deep and abiding anger burning at the bottom of them. "Has Ma'ar given us any new
and unpleasant surprises?"
It was Amberdrake's turn to shake his head, but this time it was with relief. "Like that mage-shot he
pelted us with last month? Not that I've heard, and I heard most of the rumors three times over between
my tent and yours."
"Good." Skan had been tense; now he relaxed a bit. Amberdrake would have given a month's pay
to know what had prompted that question—and knew very well that Skan would never tell him. He
could surmise that there had been some kind of new weapon in use by Ma'ar's army—and that Skan had
neutralized it somehow. He could surmise it, but Skan would never reveal the truth of the matter.
"So, wicked one, what have you been up to while I have been wallowing at my ease in a nest of
pillows?" Skan asked, quickly changing the subject before Amberdrake had a chance to ask him
anyway. "Any new and interesting clients?"
"One new one yesterday, who I hope is never going to come back," Amberdrake told him. "A more
unpleasant man I have never met, and a mercenary mage on top of that."
He told Skan all there was to tell about Conn Levas, without revealing the man's name or divulging
anything that might identify him—not even the fact that the man's lover might be Kaled'a'in. He didn't
often break client confidentiality, and even then it would only be to a superior, like Artis Camlodon, the
Chief Healer, or to Urtho himself, should he ever find himself in that exalted being's presence. Few
people overawed Amberdrake; he had seen too many of the great and powerful unclothed both
physically and spiritually, but Urtho always left him feeling as if his mouth were hanging wide open. The
blazing intellect, the aura of controlled and absolute power, and the overwhelming competence of the
man added up to the kind of charisma that left Amberdrake weak in the knees. What he looked like
didn't matter; Amberdrake invariably saw the Mage of Silence with a kestra'chern's eyes—the eyes of
one who saw past the surface, always.
Still, Amberdrake found himself telling Skan more than he would have told anyone else, and Skan
listened with every indication of interest. It was marvelous, simply having a friend to talk to this way, and