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

Zhaneel's nares blushed red and she leapt straight up, gaining altitude madly. When she had reached
twice the height she counted as "safe," she rolled over on her back, straightened, and folded her wings in
tight, hurtling faster than any crossbow bolt. Her shadow streaked across the ground below as she
flattened the dive. She felt the wind cut across her body and saw the landscape become a blur as she
shot across the clearing, scant wing-lengths above the ground, following the same path in the air that her
sweep earlier had done on the surface.
Behind her, she could hear fireballs erupting, and saw flashes of yellow light. Moments later, she
traded speed for altitude and pulled up, to see sparks raining down on the entire clearing—and Aubri's
shield.
The improvised shield held and protected him from harm.
With the first victory cry she had ever uttered, she closed on him to lead him from his captivity.

Winterhart grimaced as the audience began cheering. Someone jostled her, jarring her back and
sending a jab of pain down her right leg, further souring her mood.
Garber had ordered her to come here, orders she hadn't much liked and wasn't sure she agreed
with. Right now, though, she wasn't very fond of gryphons; it was a gryphon that had injured her back.
Be fair. It wasn't her fault. She'd been having backaches and ignoring them—after all, who didn't
have a headache or a backache by day's end around here? She had been restraining an hysterical and
delirious broadwing with severe lacerations who had lashed out with both hind feet and sent Winterhart
twisting and tumbling sideways. She hadn't broken anything, but her back spasmed as soon as she got
up, and it had been getting worse, not better, with time.
She was a Healer; she knew she should be seeing another Healer, or should at least stay in bed, flat,
for a while. She was even fairly certain that she knew what was wrong. But there were no Healers and
no time to spare, so she simply hadn't mentioned it to anyone. She moved as little as possible, said she
had "sprained" her back, and used that as an excuse not to do things that made it hurt worse. But she
was in constant pain; there were only two positions she could take that allowed the pain to stop, and
neither of them were appropriate for getting any work done. It was embarrassing. A Healer should be
able to keep herself in one piece. This was altogether too much like a display of incompetence.
The pain wasn't doing much for her temper, and getting jostled and making it worse didn't help.
Damn Garber. He's right, but for all the wrong reasons.
She'd been watching Zhaneel herself for several days, since she'd gotten wind of this "obstacle
course" business, and long before dimwitted Garber had any notion that it was going on. Even before
today she'd found herself torn between two violently conflicting opinions.
On the one hand she had to admire the little gryphon; obviously unsuited for combat, she had found
ways to make herself suited to it. She had been pushing herself, finding her absolute limits, turning
handicaps into benefits. The number of things she'd had to work out for herself to overcome her own
deficiencies was incredible, and the ingenious ways she had done so were amazing. It was difficult to
believe that this was the little runt Garber saw no use at all for.
But on the other hand, Zhaneel was exhausting herself completely with these so-called "training
sessions"; no one had ever authorized her to do what she was doing, which made them quasi-legal at
best. But that could be ignored. What could not be ignored was the fact that she had led other gryphons
into trying her unorthodox tactics, with very mixed results.
Zhaneel herself had come out of these sessions with pulled muscles; she hadn't come to Winterhart
for any help, but that made no difference. The gryphon had been hurt, and she was the one who had
invented the course and the training. Winterhart was afraid that one of the others was very likely to be
seriously injured trying some of her nonsense.
Even if the other gryphons didn't manage to hurt themselves on this course, the fact still remained
that they burned off energy and resources they might need later, where it counted. Out on the front lines.
The war escalated, resources diminished. Although it was not common knowledge, Urtho's forces had
lost ground, a little more every day. There was a new breed of makaar in the air now, and they took a