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

after all. We can allow them some measure of independence." Nonetheless, she was tense enough herself
—poised, no doubt, to dash to answer a daughter's call, to resolve last-minute misgivings.

Then the organ broke from Bach and stilled. The orchestra began again, a joyous but stately
promenade, as the queen herself stepped down the aisle escorted by her younger son, Prince Diarmid.
She was spectacular in embroidered silk, but wore only a few gems, her notion of not outdoing the
brides. She paced the length of the aisle in stately fashion, stepped into the larger of the two carved and
gilded chairs by the altar, and sat as her son went on to stand beside his childhood friend Gregory—
interesting that he was best man for his friend instead of his brother, who had to make do with the young
Duke of Savoy.

It should have been Magnus .. .

Rod threw off the thought and turned to watch as the bridesmaids came down the aisle like a train
of spring flowers, all members of Quicksilver's former outlaw band—and needed, for Quicksilver,
Cordelia, and Allouette would all have served as each others' maids of honor, if they hadn't been
marrying at the same ceremony.

Then came the ring bearer, proud of his place at seven years old and carrying the satin cushion as
though it were the crown itself; after him came five girls of the same age, strewing rose petals. As they
came to the head of the aisle, their mothers steered them toward the altar.

Then ten trumpeters brought their long straight horns to their lips, and the fanfare flared out over
the crowd. As its strains died, the organ pealed out the opening notes of the "Wedding March." and there
they came, a trio of veiled young women in shimmering white, Cordelia in the center and a little ahead.
Rod knew her by the way she walked, the way she held herself, by the hundred and one little signs he
and Gwen had learned over the years of rearing her. Behind and to her right, Quicksilver marched with
head held high, almost defiantly. To the left, Allouette matched her pace, but with a diffident, hesitant
stride, seeming almost to question by her very carriage whether she deserved to be there.

Rod erased that doubt from his own mind as he fell in beside his daughter, beaming down at her,
then over her head at Gwen as she took Cornelia's other arm. They exchanged a brief glance that made
the rest of the world seem to go away for a moment. Then, resolutely, Gwen turned to pace the aisle with
her daughter.

Rod lifted his head as the "Wedding March" filled the cathedral, albeit with a few small errors that
he was sure only he noticed. With avid eagerness, the nobility turned for a glimpse of their future queen.

In stately procession, the three young women paced down the aisle, bouquets clutched tightly in
their hands, Quicksilver flanked by her mother and little sister, now almost as tall as she; each seemed
awed and awkward despite her finery, shooting anxious glances at the grand people about them, for they
were, after all, only a squire's wife and daughter, and unused to such pomp and ceremony.

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Allouette had no one but Gregory—they had never managed to find her true parents, from whom
she had been kidnapped as an infant—so beside her came the king himself, Tuan Loguire, for, ever