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

I’ll guard your back.”

Ry turned away from Yanth and gripped the rail.“There’s only one first time,” he said. “Thisis it
for us. The first time we’ll see each other as a man anda woman. The first time we’ll touch. The
first time we’ll. . .” He closed his eyes, conjuring up the image ofKait standing atop a tower, her
long black hair blowing in thebreeze. He’d conjured that image of her to show hislieutenants. It
was still the way he saw her — chin lifted,eyes fierce, the blue silk of her dress barely able to
contain hervitality, her passion, her beauty. After coming so far, he refusedto share their first
moments together with anyone.
“We knew you’d fight having all of usgoing,” Yanth was saying, “so we made a concession
foryou. We drew straws, and I won the draw.” He smiled and saidsoftly, “I cheated in order to
win, but you needn’t tellthe others that. I suspect that they cheated, too. I had to win,though. I
trust my skills at sword and knife more than theirs, andI was determined that if only one of us
went with you, I would bethe best. So. You may not want me, but you’ll by the gods haveme.”

Yanth had cheated, had he? Probably broke his straw, palmed thelonger part of it, then glared
down the rest of them whenthey’d challenged him — Yanth would do that. Well, Ry could cheat,
too. He could keep the peace, get off the shipwithout argument, and then do what he wanted to do
anyway.

So Ry sighed and said, “You’ll get in my way if Idon’t agree, won’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then get in.”

They rowed ashore in silence, and dragged the boat up onto thebeach. Five cairns above the tide
line marked five graves. One ofthem was new. Ry glanced at the graves and said, “You’dbest
stay with the boat, so that something doesn’t come alongand take it. I want to make sure we have
a way to getback.”

“You’re a liar.” A half-smile twisted acrossYanth’s face, then vanished. “If something takes
thedamned boat, our friends can row here in one of the other ones. Ifyou get killed while I’m here
watching the boat, though, wecan’t undo that. Can we?”

Ry sniffed; though the atmosphere was redolent of charcoal andraw wet earth, one swirl of clean
air blew from somewhere back ofthe hills, carrying the faint and wistful promise of green
andgrowing things. And . . . he breathed deeper. . . and the mouthwatering smell of food cooking.
Thecookfire scents mingled with the burned-charcoal stink and so werealmost hidden, but when
he closed his eyes he could catch thefaintest whiff of boiling greens spiced with pepper and rath,
and meat braising slowly on a stake, the juices drippinginto the flames. The scent lay in the same
direction as thestrengthening tug of the magic that drew him toward Kait. And shehad loosened
her shields a little. She felt receptive.

He smiled slowly. Perhaps she wanted this moment as much as hedid. He turned to Yanth. “Well
enough. You can come with me,then. If you can keep up.”

He took off up the hill at a dead run, dodging between thegutted ruins of the dead city, putting
them between him and Yanth.He was Karnee, faster and more agile than any human, and
withinhuman stamina. By the time Ry dropped over the first rise andcaught a stronger draft of the