"Christopher Stasheff - Warlock 13 - Warlock's Last Ride" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

friend as ever you have been."

So this was Prince Alain, Alea noted. She surveyed the other three, naming them with information
learned only in the last few weeks. Gregory was not so slender as Magnus had led her to believe—ten
years had worked wonders indeed. Geoffrey was every bit as she had imagined him, muscular and
seeming to be leashed mayhem even here with his family—but Cordelia was far more beautiful than
Magnus's description had led her to believe.

In desperation, she turned to the two young women who stood by watching, but there was no relief
in the sight of the brothers' newly-wed wives. The redhead stirred impatiently, and her skirt swirled,

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parting and revealing a flash of hose-clad thigh—the warrior, then, dressed so that her skirts should not
get in the way when she mounted a horse. That meant that the one whose hair seemed white in the
moonlight was … Alea braced herself, trying to hold down a growing anger.

Magnus straightened and embraced his old friend the prince. Alea realized he had made his point
with skills hard-won, but of diplomacy, not fighting. As he stepped back, Cordelia caught Alain's arm
and pressed against his side, saying, "Aye, embrace him as your brother, Magnus, not your prince."

"A year earlier and I could have come in time for your weddings," Magnus said, chagrined. "But at
least…"

There was an awkward silence as everyone else filled in the words he had cut off: At least Mother
lived to see it. The gloom of the occasion settled over the delight in Magnus's homecoming. Then
Cordelia forced a smile and said, "I am not quite so badly outnumbered any more, Magnus. You have
three sisters now." She turned to the other two women. "She with the fiery hair and the temper to match
is Quicksilver."

The redhead stepped forward to take Geoffrey's arm with a proprietorial manner but extended the
other to Magnus. "Welcome, brother."

Magnus took the hand with a flourish and pressed a kiss to it. Quicksilver's eyes widened with
surprise, and Geoffrey's darkened, but before he could protest, Magnus released the hand and stepped
back to look them up and down with a growing smile. "Well-matched, I should say— and a handsome
couple indeed. I hope you shall be blessed with daughters, for they shall be paragons of beauty."

"What, brother!" Geoffrey said indignantly. "Will you wish me no sons?"

"As many as your lady can manage, Geoffrey," Magnus assured him, "for I doubt not they will be
as turbulent as they will be handsome."

Quicksilver smiled. "Let them be holy terrors! I think I can deal with half a dozen at least."

Geoffrey looked at her in surprize, but Gregory cleared his throat, and Magnus looked up, then
seemed to become still within his body, his smile a little more firm, even rigid, and Alea wondered if
any but she realized he was bracing himself.