"Lisanne Norman - Sholan Alliance 06 - Stronghold Rising" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman Lisanne)

Stronghold
Rising
Sholan Alliance - 06
Lisanne Norman
PART 1
Dreaming
 CHAPTER 1
Stronghold, Zhal-S’Asha (Month of Approaching Darkness), 18th day, 1551 (October)

The door behind him opened and closed. Ignoring the soft footfall, he continued to stare out
across the Dzahai Mountains.
“I thought I’d find you here.”
“If you’ve come to persuade me not to go, you’ll fail,” he said shortly, trying to contain the
anger that had been building now for several days.
“There’s no need for it to be you, surely. Since you came back from Haven,
your—health—has not been good. Lijou and Rhyaz don’t even know that the message is genuine.
Are you positive someone else couldn’t…”
“I’m going,” he interrupted, the other’s slight hesitation not lost on him. “As head of AIRel, you
know why I was asked for specifically.”
There was a short silence. “At least delay it by a day or two, Kusac. It shouldn’t make any…”
“I’m leaving at dawn, when I know Carrie’s had their cub,” he said coldly. “To delay any
longer would be disastrous.”
“Preparations aren’t complete. They haven’t found a way to access the ship to reprovision it
yet. Rhyaz says we risk everything if you leave so precipitously.”
The tenuous control snapped and he spun around, ears lying flat and to the side, tail visibly
lashing beneath the purple-bordered black tunic he wore. “You risk nothing!
Have you any idea what these last few months have been like for me, cut off mentally from my
Leska Link with Carrie, and from Kaid?”
“I can imagine…”
“You cannot! Now get out of here and leave me alone! You’ve had my answer! I’m leaving as
soon as their cub is born! You know I have to!” He spun back to face the window, his gesture an
obvious dismissal to the other black-pelted male.
He waited for the sound of the door again before allowing his shoulders to slump in exhaustion.
The life he’d lost during his captivity with the Primes was almost within his grasp again, and they
were asking him to turn his back on it. More, this venture, which had no guarantee of even being
worthwhile, would cost him his reputation: he’d be outcast, branded a traitor by his own kind, unable
to return until the outcome cleared his name—if it ever did.
He leaned his head against the glass, welcoming its coolness against his face and hands. Winter
was barely three weeks away. Nearly five months had passed since he’d returned from Haven after
his release by the Primes, and still he’d not come to terms with what had happened to him. Certain
events must be resolved, like the scents only he could smell that had lingered on the message. He had
to leave Shola now, before it was too late for him to get the answers he had to have.
Frustration and anger rose in him again and as his hair and the pelt beneath his tunic started to
rise, he began to growl. The torc that circled his neck started to vibrate warningly. Ignoring it and the
subsequent brief flare of pain the strong emotion still occasionally caused, he lifted his head, letting
the growl become a full-throated roar that echoed round the room. Those who still remained in the
almost empty halls of Stronghold understood its cause and, shivering, turned to each other for
reassurance.
As the echoes died away, he shuddered, trying to shake off the remaining discomfort, and
returned to looking across the moonlit landscape, far beyond Dzahai village, to where Kaid’s home