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

“How long have I been gone?”

Hasmal had been digging through her bags; he handed her sparebreeches and tunic to her as he
said, “Three days, twonights.”

“That long?” She frowned, surprised that she’dstayed in Shift longer than a day. “I was . . .under
the water. Lost.” She tugged on the clothing. “Lostinside my head. I was in the bay, but I’d
forgotten who I was.I jumped into the stream to get away from those . . . thebeasts, and to escape
the spellfire. I remember that well enough.And after I went over the waterfall, I just barely
remember hittingthose boulders at the bottom. And then I don’t rememberanything else until this
morning, when I suddenly recalled my nameand remembered that I wasn’t supposed to be a fish.
Orwhatever I was. My body Shifted me into a form that would let meheal and eat, and I guess
that’s all I’ve been doingsince I disappeared.”

They looked awed. “You can do that?”

“I’ve only done it one other time,” she said.“And that for less time than the passing of a single
station.When I jumped into the bay in Maracada, the night I met you”— she looked at Ian — “I
hit the water so hard itstunned me, and I nearly drowned. My body Shifted me then, too— partly.
Left me human, but gave me gills so that I couldbreathe in the water. Until that happened, I didn’t
know Icould take any form but the four-legged one.”

Hasmal looked thoughtful. “To answer your question,Jayti walked past the corpse of the beast
you disembowled after thespellfire stopped burning,” he said. “Except itwasn’t truly dead. It
grabbed him by one leg, mangled the leg.We got him away from it and finally managed to kill it,
but. . .”

“Hasmal took the leg off for me. Did a good job of it.I’ll be back t’ myself soon enough.” He said
it, andhe might have believed it, but Kait knew it wasn’t true. Shesmelled the stink of blood-rot
— faintly, perhaps faintlyenough that human noses couldn’t detect it. Jayti wasn’tgoing to get
better. She looked quickly at Hasmal and saw thebleakness in his eyes. He knew, then.

Ian said, “Jayti will be helping us build our boat beforeyou can blink.” The pain was in his eyes,
too. They werekeeping it from him, the fact of his impending death. Keeping itfrom him as long
as they could.

She turned back to Jayti, and knelt by his side. She looked intohis eyes, and willed him to fight
off the blood sickness. “Weneed you,” she said in a voice pitched only for his ears.“Especially
Ian. He’s lost his ship, his crew, everyonehe thought he could count on except for you. Don’t let
himlose you, too.”
Jayti, face gray and waxy, smiled a little, and in a voice evensofter than hers, said, “I smell it. I
know — butthey’re happier thinking I don’t. So we play thisgame.” He patted her arm. “But even
when I’m gone,the captain hasn’t lost everything. He still hasyou.”

She returned his smile with a false sincerity that hid thepained awkwardness of the truth. Ian
would need Jayti. Hewould need a friend from his past to stand by him in the days tocome. And
sitting in the back of the room they all occupied was theone thing she could think of that might
save Jayti’s life, andspare Ian’s friend.