"Michelle West - Winter Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (West Michelle)

"Rodri died, didn't he?"
Gisel raised a brow. Lifted her glass. "Yes. He died."
"And Gregori?"
Gisel closed her eyes. Set the glass down and filled it again. "There are Empaths
among the Heralds," she said, when she chose to speak again. "I am not one of
them.
"If I were, I would not be here to speak to you now."
And Kayla knew, as the words left the lips of the King's Own, that she was angry;
that had it been up to this woman, Gregori would be dead.
She took a step back, a step away, and lifted her hand.
Gisel's dark eyes became narrowed edges into a harsh expression. "Yes, Kayla,
you're right. If it had been up to me, I would have killed the boy. If it were up to
me, he would be dead now."
"But the King—"
"Yes. The King feels guilt. Even though he sees the cost of Gregori's
continued...existence, he feels that if he had somehow been present, he could have
prevented what did happen. What is happening even as we speak. And he has
summoned every Healer in the kingdom to the side of his son's bed in an attempt to
revive him, to bring him back.
"They have failed, all of them."
"And the Empaths?"
"Two of them were my closest friends," Gisel said. She walked back to the tall
window and stood in its frame, looking out. "The bells have tolled for the
youngest."
 "But—"
"But?"
"I don't understand."
"That much is clear. Ask, and ask quickly."
"If the Empaths couldn't help him, why have you been waiting for me?"
"I don't know."
"P—pardon?"
Gisel turned; the light was harsh; it made her face look like broken stone. "I don't
know. I don't know what it was that Magda—that Margaret—Merton might have
done to save him. I was there when Sasha fell. I was there when Michael joined
her. I've been all over the city looking at the sleepers who are just waiting to join
the dead. And I can hear what they think, when their terror has any words at all. It's
my belief that if Gregori died, they would wake."
Kayla listened as Gisel spoke.
:Darius.:
:Kayla?:
:It is—the King's son—he is—:
:Yes.:
:The dragon.:
"You're wrong," she heard herself say.
Gisel raised a brow.
"If you killed him, he'd take them all with him when he went. All of them."
Gisel closed her eyes. Her turn. But she snapped them open quickly enough.
"And you know this how?"
Helpless, Kayla shrugged. "I don't know. But...I'd bet my life on it."
"Well that's good, because you will be. Go and get a bath, get food, settle into