"Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon - Mage Wars 03 - The Silver Gryphon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

She had never once seen any indications that Amberdrake had given in to the temptation to use his
tacit power—but he was her father, and she knew that she was prejudiced on his behalf. For that matter,
she was not certain she would know what to look for if he had misused his powers.
Oh, it's not likely. Father would never do anything to harm anyone, if only because he is an
Empath and would feel their emotional distress.
 She ought to know; she was something of an Empath herself, although in her case, she got nothing
unless she was touching the person in question.
That was one of the reasons why Amberdrake was so confounded by the idea that she wanted to
be a Silver. How could an Empath ever choose to go into a profession where she might have to kill or
injure someone?
Easily enough. It's to prevent the people I must take care of from killing or injuring others.
He would never accept that, just as he would never accept the idea that she would not want to use
her Empathic ability.
She shuddered at the very idea. He knows every nasty little secret, every hidden fear, every
deep need, every longing and every desire of every client he has ever dealt with. How he manages
to hold all those things inside without going mad—I cannot fathom it. And that he actually wants
to know these things—I could never do that, never. It makes my skin crawl. I don't want to know
anyone that intimately. It would be like having every layer of my skin peeled off—or doing it to
someone else over and over.
She loved her father and mother, she knew they were wonderful, admirable people, and yet
sometimes the things that they did made her a little sick inside. All a Silver ever had to do was stop a
fight, or break some bones once in a while, and apply force when words didn't work. That was just flesh,
and flesh would heal even if it was shredded and bleeding—it wasn't as serious as getting into someone's
heart and digging around.
From that moment of understanding of who and what her father was, she had been terrified that
people would simply assume that she was like him—that she wanted to be like him. Her greatest fear
had been that they would take it for granted that she would cheerfully listen while they bared their souls to
her—
Gods. No. Anything but that.
For a while, until the Healers taught her how to control her Empathic ability, she had even shied
away from touching other people, lest she learn more than she wished to. Even after she had learned to
block out what she did not want to know, she had been absolutely fanatic about her own privacy.
At least as much as I can be while I still live with my parents.
She kept her thoughts strictly to herself just as much as she could; never confided anything about the
things she considered hers alone. Even affairs of love or desire.
Especially matters of love and desire.
By now she wondered if both her parents thought she was a changeling. Here were two people who
knew everything there was to know about the physical, and yet their daughter appeared to be as sexless
as a vowed virgin.
She had made up her mind that she was not even going to give her father and mother the faintest of
hints that she might have an interest in partnering anyone or anything. Unfortunately, they would not have
been taken aback by any liaison she cared to make. They were, in fact, all too assiduous at suggesting
possible partners, and would have been cheerfully pleased to offer volumes of advice on approach and
technique once she even hinted at a choice!
And it would be advice of a kind she blushed even to contemplate. There was such a thing as too
much information.
Why can't they be like other parents? she thought, rebelliously. Why couldn't they have been
surprised that I was no longer an innocent little girl, horrified by the idea that I might one day bed
someone, and attempt to guard my virtue as if it were the gold mines of King Shalaman? Any of
those would be so much easier to deal with!