Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey Halfblood Chronicles 03 Elvenborn

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

ing part was, beneath those hills and mountains caves, and agreat
many of them.
Going home first also allowed him to take Rennati back to the estate.
That took one burden off his mind and would givehim an excuse to leave Gel as
well. Not that he didn't want Gel along but this would not be a mission where
Gel's expertise was needed. Given thathe could not be at home, he
wantedsomeone he trusted to be there. Lady Lydiell was clever and cunning, but
she was no soldier. If soldiers were needed, Gel could command as well, if not
Page 213
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
better, than Kyrtian.
As for his own troops, those who were left were by this time heartily
tired of real warfare and ready to go back to the farm,field, and household
positions they had left. It was time to takethem home, too and by the greatest
of good fortune, he wouldbe takingall of them home. There had been only minor
casual- ties among his own people, no deaths at all, and those injuries they
sustained were neither crippling nor incapacitating. Thatwas not by accident
orentirely by good fortune alone; Kyrtian's men, with their greater expertise
in fighting than the Young Lords' conscripts, had shown their clear
superiority in the fieldin all ways.
He was terribly proud of them. The point was,
theyweren'tprofessional, trained fighters; they were fanners, house-servants,
herders. But they had applied themselves with will and enthusiasm to his
training, and when called on to use thattraining, they had done so with all
the dedication he could haveasked for.
He didn't quite know how to reward them; the kind of greatfeast he
usually held for a successful "campaign" was woefully inadequate as a
recompense. And as he shepherded the last ofhis people through Moth's Portal,
he made a mental note to askhis mother her opinion. Of all people, she surely
should havesome notion.
Finally there were only the three of them left to cross him-self,
Gel, and Rennati. And as he watched the other two waitingpatiently for the
Portal to clear, with Gel's arm openly and pro-tectively around the
apprehensive little dancer, he knew with
considerable amusement that there was at least one person he had had
no difficulty in fitting a reward to. There had been a grain of truth in that
pompous and incredibly insulting littlespeech he'd made in front of Lady
Triana; he really did hopethat Gel would have a son or several to train to
take the fa-ther's place at Kyrtian's side. No one could have had a better
bodyguard or friend and Kyrtian was not looking forwardto the day when he
would have to tell Gel to stand down and let another take his place. But like
it or not, the fact was that unlesssomething happened to him, Kyrtian would
likely be served by Gel's great-great-great-great-grandchildren.
Near-immortality came with its own costs.
He shook off the melancholy thought, and brought his mindback to the
present. Lady Lydiell would be very amused, hewas sure, when she realized what
had happened between Ren-nati and Gel. An inveterate matchmaker, she had been
trying topair Gel off for years. She'd find the current situation entirely
toher liking.
She'll have them tucked up in a little cottage or suite of theirown
in the manor before the two of them get a chance to turnaround.
"Go on through, you two," he said, waving at them. Heturned to Moth,
as they stepped into the utter blackness withinthe Portal.
"Are you going to be all right?" he asked. "Can you keep those idiot
children from trying to start the rebellion all over again, or somehow getting
caught?"
She laughed. "The day I can't keep an unruly pack of pup-pies like
that under my thumb, now that they've had a good scare, is the day you might
as well start planning my funeral-games. You and your boys showed them that
everything they'd won against their fathers was due to their incredible good
Page 214
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
luck,the Wizards' iron, and the Great Lords' incompetence. They're happy
enough to be escaping the hounds, and I imagine they'llstay that way for some
little while." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Wątki