"08 - Colors of Chaos.palmdoc.pdb" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

"Why are you telling me that?"
"Because I trust you."
"Have you told Faltar that?"
"No."
"He's your friend."
"You know why," Cerryl said with a laugh.
"Alas ... men." Lyasa made a woeful face. "You are different. A little different."
Cerryl made a bowing gesture with his right hand. "My deepest gratitude, lady mage. If you would but convey that to the absent lady who is your friend ..."
Lyasa shook her head, then yawned and stood. "I need a nap or something."
Cerryl rose and slipped toward the door.
"Whatever it is you do to keep her away, keep doing it."
As if I'd ever dare to do anything else. "Your request is my command." He put his hand on the door lever.
"Would that you had told me that before you met Leyladin."
"That couldn't happen. I've known her longer." Cerryl smiled at Lyasa's puzzlement as he opened the door. "Ask her."
"I just might."
As he closed the door, Cerryl glanced toward the bookcase, wondering if he would be able to read more than a page before being interrupted again. Finally, he sat and took out Colors of White, looking at the half-familiar words where the book opened:

... iron, being that which draws free chaos unto it, never should it be employed around those who employ chaos for good, for it will drain chaos as it can ...

He smiled ruefully. There were times when he'd felt that-when he'd had to climb the iron gate in Fenard while he had been holding a light shield, but usually iron did not burn him the way he knew it would Jeslek or Anya. He flipped back to his place marker and resumed his search.


XXII

Cerryl stood in the shadows by the columns at the back of the north side of the Council Chamber, not erecting a light shield exactly, but letting the light sift, or blur, around him, as though he were not quite there. People's eyes shifted from him, and he could see them, if not clearly, unlike when he hid behind the total light shield, which rendered him invisible to all-except mages who looked for concentrations of order and chaos. That was one reason not to use the full light shield in the Halls, that and that it left him blind, except for his chaos-order senses. He couldn't explain the reasons for the difference, but Leyladin had assured him that no concentrations of order or chaos accompanied the effort, and she could sense such better than most Whites. With the blur shield he was now using he could see colors and forms, enough with his order senses, to recognize those he knew.
Esaak waddled in, accompanied by Myral, whose wheezing reached even Cerryl. After them came a mage wearing a crimson and gold sash. Gorsuch? Were the sashes to signify in what lands they represented the Guild?
Shyren appeared, his shock of graying sandy hair standing out and wearing a green sash-green for Certis. Eliasar, the battle mage, walked with him but did not wear a sash.
Then came the slender red-haired figure of Anya, accompanied by Fydel. She paused at the back of the chamber and peered around.
Cerryl almost held his breath, wanting to clutch the white marble column that partly shielded him.
"He's not here yet," Fydel said in a whisper, barely audible to Cerryl.
"I thought I had made it clear to him."
"That could be, but he still reports to Kinowin."
"Kinowin and Myral won't live forever," Anya hissed. "He will deal with us."
Cerryl shivered and waited. Once Anya, a puzzled expression on her face, finally walked down the aisle and seated herself beside Fydel, Cerryl let the light filter go and allowed himself to be cloaked only by shadows as the rest of the Guild entered the chamber.
"So you're here?" Lyasa slipped up beside Cerryl. "I didn't see you before."
"I've been here. I just didn't want to be seen at first."
"Why are you back here?" she asked in a low voice, her eyes going around the chamber, which was almost full. "You can't see everything from the back."
"I have a feeling."
"A feeling?"
"Just wait."
"If you say so."
For a time the two young mages stood in the shadows, watching. Then Cerryl smiled faintly as the sun-eyed and white-haired Jeslek strode into the chamber, marching up the center aisle, exuding the raw odor of chaos. "I thought so."
"Thought what?"
"Anya told me that Jeslek wouldn't be here and asked me to sit with her. She was looking for me earlier."
"What did you do to her? Besides refuse her advances? And her charms?"
"Isn't that enough?" he whispered dryly.
At the front of the chamber, Sterol stepped onto the dais, along with Kinowin and Jeslek.
"Let's go farther up." Cerryl slipped along the outer edge of the columns until he was within a dozen or so cubits of the gold-shot marble of the speaking dais.
"... we face most difficult times, even more difficult than I had predicted at the last meeting." Sterol's face could have been carved out of granite when he paused, so hard did it appear. "Guild revenues have dwindled. At the same time, we have been forced into sending more lancers into Certis." He turned to Jeslek.
"The Great White Highway is now more protected than before, and by early fall we should have that protection completed." Jeslek's smile was dazzling. "Then we will bring in lancers to ensure that the prefect meets his obligations to Fairhaven."