"Holly Lisle - Secret Texts 2 - Vengeance Of Dragons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lisle Holly)

remembering that horrible confrontation with hisonce-beautiful mother, who lay in her sickbed,
Scarred beyondrecognition by the fallout of his Family’s abortive waragainst the Galweigh
Family. “She didn’t want to hearanything I had to say. She insisted that since my father was
dead,I take over leadership of the Wolves. I refused, telling her that Iwas coming after Kait. She
was furious with me, and asked if youwere all accompanying me. I told her that I sailed alone —
that all of you were dead.” He heard their indrawn breaths,saw the shock and horror on their
faces, and he looked down, unableto meet their eyes.

“You told her we were dead?” Karyl, Ry’scousin, fell back onto the bunk and covered his face
with bothhands. “Dead? You . . . idiot!”

“I feared her reprisals against your families if she knewyou were helping me defy her.”

Yanth had gone so pale his scars disappeared. “Dead. Sowhat advantages did you feel you got for
us by our beingdead?”

“I told her that you died heroes . . . fightingthe Galweighs in Galweigh House.” He shrugged. “It
seemedlike a good idea at the time.”

He saw them wince at those words.

They had the right, he thought. He didn’t even dare recallthe number of times he’d said those
words before. So many ofhis disasters had seemed like good ideas at the time.

In his defense, he told them, “Your families are now inhigh favor. High favor. Trev, your sisters
will be presentedto first-rank Sabirs when they are of marriageable age and will beeligible to
carry title all the way up to paraglesa. Valard, yourbrother and father will have already been
given the title of parat.You other three — your families were already parats. But theywon’t be
dead . . . and if my mother had any ideathat you were helping me defy her, they would have been,
with theirheads on the city walls.”

Valard crossed his arms over his chest and glowered at Ry, greeneyes blazing. “That seems
exaggerated. How much trouble couldyou have been in? Meanwhile, while we’re dead and will
neverbe able to go home without destroying our families, you’ll goback a hero, eh?” He had
always been willing to do anythingfor Ry, but at that moment he looked like he’dreconsidered.

“Either we go back heroes together or none of us goes backat all. As far as everyone knows, I’m
as dead as youare.”

That gave them pause.

“They think you’re dead, too?” Karyl asked.“So how did you accomplish that? And why?”
“I made it look as if the Hellspawn Trinity killed me,because they knew I was going to make my
bid to lead the Wolves.That was as much to convince my mother that I intended to complywith
her demands as to get out of the House without breaking myword to her. You see, she told me if I
didn’t stay and fightfor leadership of the Wolves, she’d declare me barzanne. But she failed to
consider that if I stayed and madea real bid for power, the Trinity would have killed me for
real.And being ‘dead’ legally was better than being dead infact. And far better than being
barzanne.”