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

She had found out personally that it was much harder to deal with sunny cooperation than with
outright opposition.
It's a great deal like the hand-to-hand combat styles we Silvers learn, she thought in frustration,
noting down yet another item for Tadrith. When your opponent moves against you, there are any
number of ways you can counter him. You can block him, parry him, evade him, or use his attack
against him. When he attacks, he gives you options, to counter him. But when he does nothing—
when he actually flows with your moves, it is impossible to do anything to extract yourself from
the situation.
Ironic, to think of her outwardly serene life with her parents as a combat situation.
The only real escape from this ridiculous situation was to move away from White Gryphon
altogether. As she had advised Keenath, there were positions available for Silvers in the Haighlei Empire.
The ambassadors from White Gryphon needed a token guard of honor in order to convey the proper
presence at the court of the Emperor; that guard was comprised mostly of humans, but always had at
least four gryphons and two each of the kyree and dyheli. The tervardi preferred not to live in such a
warm climate, and the hertasi took sly enjoyment in their roles of servants, ferreting out intelligence that
would otherwise never have come to the attention of the ambassadors. The Emperor also had two
gryphon-guards assigned to him, serving alongside the younger sons of the other Haighlei Kings.
I could ask to be posted there... I think I would enjoy the solitude of the outposts, but there
are more things to consider here.
Tad would never be able to tolerate assignment after assignment to the lonely wilderness. He would
go absolutely, stark, staring lunatic after a while. He was a very social creature, and their partnership
would not last very long if she was the only other being around to talk to.
Not to mention what would happen to him without female gryphons about. He only thinks he's
nothing like his father. He has as wild a reputation among the fair flyers as his father ever had, if
not more so. I had better check in on him to make sure he gets some sleep before we leave.
She chuckled to herself, and Tad looked back at her for a moment in curiosity.
And as far as that went, she was no chaste virgin, untouched and unawakened. She might well go
quietly insane if she lived too long away from civilization.
For one thing, after too long out there, some very disturbing things might begin to look
attractive. Tension can do that. When I find myself eying snakes and fondling branches, I'll know
I've been away too long. Still, that's only one thing to miss, and easy enough to simulate—it is far
more difficult to replace a lover's concern. For another complication—well—there is Ikala.
She sighed. Ikala was important to Blade, and she had kept her parents from finding out about him
only through plotting and planning that would have done a spymaster proud.
Haighlei Kings with more than one son—and most of them, ceremonially wedded to a new
priestess-bride each year, had many children—sent those sons off to be the personal guards of other
Kings. This ensured that there would be no warfare and no assassination attempts, for every King had
hostages from every other King. Furthermore, every King had the opportunity to win the loyalty of the
sons of his fellow Kings, giving him an ally in the courts of his neighbors. It was a good system, and in the
highly structured and rigid culture of the Haighlei, it worked well.
Ikala was one of those younger sons, twentieth in succession behind the actual Crown Prince of
Nbubi. But instead of being sent to serve in one of the other Courts, he had elected to come to White
Gryphon instead, to be trained by Aubri and Judeth and serve in the Silvers.
The culture of the Haighlei was a strange one by Kaled'a'in standards. Every action was tightly
bound up in protocol; every moment cemented with custom. The Haighlei lived in the most rigid society
that the Kaled'a'in had ever seen or heard of; change was only permitted when decreed by the Emperor
and his chief priests and then only at the Eclipse Ceremony....
How anything gets changed at all is a mystery. There was a hierarchy for everything, from the
gods to the poorest beggar, and no one was ever allowed to leave his place in that hierarchy except at
approved times, under rigid circumstances. And that was why Ikala, son of a King, was here in White