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

She tried to put her audience out of her mind, although that was far from easy: her own kind were
out there, other gryphons, those from other wings as well as her own. And what was more, some of
those same gryphons had taken to training on the course, and leaving her tokens of appreciation.
Every time she made a pass on the course, people cheered her efforts, from hertasi to humans, from
gryphons to a lone kyree who seemed to find her fascinating. Now, they waited for her to start yet again.
A white and red striped flag midway down the course went up and waved twice, and she launched
from the block. This was a rescue mission to free a captured gryphon. The details had been kept secret,
at her request, so she had only a general idea what to expect. One thing she knew for certain—Vikteren
and the hertasi planned to make her work harder than ever before.
The first danger came only twelve wingstrokes after starting—a sudden gust of wind from her right.
It hit her hard and pushed her toward a downed tree's spidery limbs, an easy place to lose feathers and
find lacerations. She reacted by rolling in midair and grounding, folding her wings in tightly while she
clutched at stones and brush. The wind gusts ceased, and Zhaneel leapt over a ravine, to the cheers of
the audience.
She crept into the next erosion channel, popping her head up every few seconds to look for danger.
A quick bolt of fire shot toward the ravine from behind a boulder and was followed by a huge fireball that
roared like a sustained lightning strike. It burned slowly through the ravine, catching the underbrush afire.
She heard the audience gasp even over the roar, as Zhaneel scrambled out of their line of sight,
disappearing from their view. She knew what was in their minds. Had the game gone too far?
But she couldn't worry about them. They'd see her soon enough—
She popped up again at the far end of the adjoining erosion cut. She leapt to the sandstone boulder
with a growl, and drew her rope-knife on the surprised mage hiding behind it. Hah! Hello Vikteren.
"You die!" she sang out, and Vikteren grinned and fell backward.
"I'm dead here," he reminded her as he stood up and brushed off his robes. "See you further on,
maybe."
"You might not see me at all, dead body!" she laughed, then sheathed the knife. There was a mission
to accomplish, a gryphon to rescue, and the adventure had barely begun.

Amberdrake felt like a proud and anxious father as he watched the young gryphon waiting on her
block-perch. Every line and quivering muscle betrayed her tension and her concentration. He had arrived
after she took her position, but still managed to commandeer a place in the front beside Skan. The Black
Gryphon had recovered nicely from his injuries although, on the orders of Lady Cinnabar, he was still
officially convalescing. He was keeping an uncharacteristically low profile, however—as if he were afraid
his presence would distract the young female at some crucial moment.
Well, it might. The youngster had been patently overawed by the Black Gryphon; if she knew he
was watching, she might well lose her concentration.
Skan's tail twitched impatiently, but as Amberdrake put a comradely hand on his shoulder he gave
Amberdrake a sideways gryph-grin before riveting his attention on the distant gray and buff figure of
Zhaneel.
At the end of the course, a flag dropped. Zhaneel left the block with a leap, followed by an audible
snap of wings opening.
Amberdrake had never seen a gryphon run an obstacle course before, though he'd heard from
Gesten that Skan had been out here to watch for the past three days in a row. He hadn't been able to
imagine what kinds of obstacles could be put in front of a gryphon, whose aerial nature made ordinary
obstacles ridiculous. He was impressed, both with Zhaneel's ability to create the course, and her ability to
run it.
More to the point, so was Skan.
He gasped with the others, when it appeared, briefly, that a rolling fireball had accidentally engulfed
her; he hadn't realized that there would be some hazards on this course that were real, and not just
illusions. He sighed with relief when she reappeared, and cheered when she "killed" someone, a