"Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon - Mage Wars 02 - The White Gryphon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

done," Snowstar said quietly. "This time the interval should be about nine months. That's more than
enough time to finish everything that has to be done magically."
Including the Council Hall. Amberdrake smiled his thanks. Snowstar had been put in place by
Urtho, the Mage of Silence, as the speaker to his armies for all of the human mages in his employ, and no
one had seen any reason why he shouldn't continue in that capacity. General Judeth, former Commander
of the Fifth, was the highest-ranking officer to have come through the two Kaled'a'in Gates before the
Cataclysm—purely by accident or the will of the gods, for she was one of the Commanders who
appreciated the varied talents of the nonhumans under her command and knew how to use them without
abusing them. On Skandranon's suggestion, she had organized the gryphons, the other nonhumans who
had served in the ranks, and the human fighters into a different kind of paramilitary organization. Judeth's
Silver Gryphons had acted as protectors and scouts on the march here, and served in the additional
capacities of police, watchmen, and guards now that they all had a real home.
Amberdrake liked and admired Judeth. I would have willingly named her Clan Sister even if no
one else had thought of the idea. Members of the Kaled'a'in Clan k'Leshya comprised the bulk of the
humans who had wound up together—and with no qualms on anyone's part, they had adopted the mixed
bag of service-fighters, mercenaries, kestra'chern and Healers who had come through with them. The
adoption ceremony had ended the "us and them" divisions before they began, forging humans and
nonhumans, Kaled'a'in and out-Clan into a whole, at least in spirit. And the journey here had completed
that tempering and forging....
Well, that's the idealistic outlook, anyway. Amberdrake did not sigh, but his stomach churned a
little. Most of the people of White Gryphon were folk of good will—
But some were not. The most obvious of those had marched off on their own over the course of the
arduous search for a place to build a home, and good riddance to them, but some had been more clever.
That was why Judeth's people still had a task, and why they would continue to serve as the police of
White Gryphon.
Because, unfortunately, the Silvers are needed.
In an ideal world, everyone here would have had meaningful work, status according to ability, and
would have been so busy helping to create their new society that they had no thought for anything else.
But this was not an ideal world. There were shirkers, layabouts, troublemakers, thieves,
drunks—any personality problem that had existed "back home" still existed somewhere among k'Leshya.
There were even those who thought Skandranon was the villain of the Cataclysm, rather than the hero.
After all, if he had never taken Urtho's "suicide device" to Ma'ar, there would never have been a
Cataclysm. And in a way, there might have been some truth in that idea. There would only have been the
single explosion of Urtho's stronghold going up—not the double impact of all of Urtho's power and
Ma'ar's discharged in a single moment. Perhaps they would not now be suffering through the effects of
mage-storms.
And perhaps we would. Even Snowstar is not certain. But there is no persuading someone
whose mind is already made up, especially when that person is looking for a nonhuman
scapegoat. Not even Judeth herself could reason with some of these idiots.
As if the thought had summoned her, Judeth arrived at that moment. Her carefully pressed, black
and silver uniform was immaculate as always. The silver-wire gryphon badge of her new command
gleamed where her medals had once held pride of place on the breast of her tunic. She wore no medals
now; she saw no reason to. "If people don't know my accomplishments by now," she often said, "no
amount of medals is likely to teach them, or persuade them to trust my judgment."
She smiled at Amberdrake who smiled back. "Well, this is three—Silvers, Mages, Services—and I
know that Cinnabar can't be spared right now for Healers, so where is our fourth?"
"On the way," Snowstar said promptly. "Zhaneel had Kechara call him."
 "Ah." Judeth's smile softened; every one of the Silvers liked Kechara, but Amberdrake knew she
had a special place in her heart for the little misborn gryfalcon. Perhaps she alone had any notion how
hard Kechara worked to coordinate the Silvers, and she never once took that hard work for granted. "In