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

enough. I want to be back in action immediately."
"There'll be plenty of action for you, warrior, and that surely means we'll see you back in surgery
soon enough," Cinnabar joked. "By now, Ma'ar's troops have stopped wagering on you. They know that
sooner or later every one of them will get a chance to shoot at you."
Skandranon stood, feeling more lively than before, and mantled in indignation. In walked an
opportunity for mischief. "They haven't killed me yet! Have they, Jewel?"
A laden and bewildered hertasi looked at Skan wide-eyed, having just come in bearing rolls of
blankets for Aubri. "N... no?" she said, with a nervous glance at the Healers.
This, of course, was a favorite trick of the Black Gryphon's—getting people involved in his
arguments, whether they liked it or not or whether they had any knowledge of the subject at hand.
Always fun! Especially when the topic of discussion was him, and it had turned unflattering. "There, you
see? Jewel knows. This was just a temporary setback, and I'll be back to save Urtho's army in no time at
all." He puffed up his chest feathers and struck an heroic pose.
"Oh, save me from him!" came Aubri's plaintive cry. Tamsin and Cinnabar broke up in laughter,
while Jewel scurried about positioning the rolls of blankets for Aubri's comfort, still bewildered by the
whole scene. Skan, of course, continued to play to his audience.
"He's unaccustomed to being near greatness."
Skan gave Aubri a lofty and condescending sidelong glance.
"I'm unaccustomed to drowning in such sketil. I can't stand him asleep or awake!" Aubri moaned.
"Healers, could you please either still his tongue or eliminate my hearing? Something? Anything?"
"Tchah! Blind fledgling," Skandranon retorted. "I am forced to take up company with the
unappreciative. It's worse than physical wounds, I tell you honestly."
Jewel paused for a heartbeat, took in the tableau of laughing and posturing, and evidently decided
that folding fresh bandages for Aubri was the right thing to do. She fell into doing so with religious fervor
on the far side of the tent. Lady Cinnabar recovered from her laughter and flashed her wide grin at
Skandranon as Tamsin tweaked Skan's tail. Tamsin then wiped his hands as if he'd just finished a day's
work and shot a satisfied look at his lover.
"I'd say our labor is done here, Lady. He's as good as he'll ever be."
"What a sad thought," Aubri muttered.
"Oh, please," Skan countered. "I have capacities I've..."
"Boasted about for years," Aubri inserted quickly. "And never fulfilled."
Skan decided that a quick change of subject was in order. "Are you two keeping an eye on our
Lord and Master?" he asked. "When Urtho visited me, I thought he looked underfed."
"It hasn't been easy, but I've been making certain he gets at least a bite or two out of every meal
brought him," Cinnabar replied with a sigh. "And his hertasi have been bringing him meals every two
candlemarks or so. Still—no sooner does he settle down to eat than more bad news comes from the
front lines, and off he goes again, food forgotten."
"He's giving more than he can afford to," Skan told her, sitting down and becoming serious for a
moment. "He never wanted to be a warlord. He isn't suited to it."
"He's doing well enough. We're all still alive," Cinnabar offered. "The only reason he's in charge is
because the King folded up. And all the King's men, the gutless lot."
Aubri's eyes twinkled. "She only says that because it's true."
But Skan stuck his tongue out in distaste. "She's being charitable, Aubri. When Ma'ar first swept
down, the border lands burned up like kindling. All the Barons were terrified, and the King's best efforts
couldn't hold them together. It all fell apart, and we had only Urtho to turn to. No one else had any
knowledge of what we faced. Cinnabar's family and a few others stood against the Kingdom's
dissolution; the rest fled like frightened hens, and were just about as witless."
"We remembered that we serve our subjects. The ones who ran served themselves and left their
people crying in their wake," Cinnabar added. "We don't know what happened to most of them. Some
had their faces changed. Some went mad or died. Most are still in hiding. Urtho doesn't blame them even