s [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

She would have said more, but a coughing fit interrupted her, and
Valyn craned his head around to look over his shoulder at her, his expression
of annoyance turning to concern.
"Areyou all right?" he asked. She shook her head, and shivered even
harder as a trickle of cold water ran through the pine boughs and down the
back of her neck. Despite her determination to show no weakness, to her
complete mortification, shedid start leaking tears out of the corners of her
eyes.
Maybe they'll look like rain, she thought hopelessly. "I'm probably
coming down with the same thing," she said around the lump in her throat. "And
I don't think the weather is going to break for a while." Now she couldn't
keep resentment out of her voice. "You elves are to blame for that every time
you muck around with the weather patterns somewhere, it throws something else
off. This place has no business turning into a rain forest, but that's what's
going on, and we're stuck in the middle of it." Valyn looked startled at her
sudden outburst; she recollected herself, and softened her voice, putting an
effort into sounding a little less accusatory. "At least Cheynar's not going
to get around very fast in this mess."
She managed a tremulous smile, and got the tears stopped. Valyn
frowned as she coughed again, her chest tightening painfully.
"We can't afford to haveyou sick either," he pointed out, gently.
"Cheynar's not that far behind us. If you're sick, who's going to hunt, find
the camps, and guide us through this place?"
"I don't think anybody's going to have a choice," she retorted. "And
if I could magic up a big house with warm beds and hot drinks, don't you think
I would?"
The thought started another tear down her cheek its path was the only
part of her that felt warm.
Valyn's jaw clenched, and he stared at her closely. "You look awful,"
he said. "And my guess is that Shadow's fevered. You'reboth going to be ill
before nightfall."
And just what am I supposed to do about it? She retorted in
thought.And what difference is it going to make ?
Apparently it made some difference to Valyn. "That's it," he said
decisively. "We don't have a choice, we need to get out of here and back to
someplace civilized."
"Right," she replied, with an edge of sarcasm to her voice. The rain
increased marginally; just enough to send another cold spill down through the
branches onto the back of her neck. "I'll just stroll up to Lord Dyran's door
and ask him if he'll please take us all in. After all, he should be overjoyed
to see us; his renegade son, two halfblood wizards and a dragon."
To her surprise, Valyn half smiled. "That's not exactly what I had in
mind," he said, his sweetly reasonable tone setting her teeth on edge. "But it
is close. There's an old saying about the best place to hide being in the
enemy's territory. So let's try it."
"You mean double back on Cheynar and try to hide with the slaves on
his estate or something?" she asked, aghast. "We'd never get away with it!"
Page 248
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
He shook his head. "That's a littletoo much of enemy territory and
besides, Cheynar has too many experts in detecting wizards. I think we ought
to drop in on a friend of mine. The estate is within flying distance for
Keman. If we went by night, he could ferry us one at a time without being
seen. She's just the kind that's likely to take us in and hide us, just for
the sheer thrill of harboring fugitives."
"A friend?" Shana replied, her voice rising until it caught on a
cough. She wondered if Keman was listening to all this, and if he thought it
as suicidal as she did. "What kind of friend would takeus in? Or are you not
going to tell her what we are? I'll warn you, after talking to Shadow I don't
think Keman and I are going to pass close inspection as either humansor elves.
You'll never pass us halfbloods as elves if we're sick, because you elves
don'tget sick that often, and if we're fevered you can bid farewell to any
deceptions that we're human. We won't be able to hold the illusions andyour
magic can be dispelled, and will leave telltales."
"Well she's not precisely a friend." He flushed, and Shana got an odd
feeling that there was more about this "friend" than he would ever tell
anyone. "But well I can almost promise Triana won't turn us in to the rest.
She's not what I'd call a conformist, and she doesn't treat her humans the way
most everyone else does. She's not exactly in good graces with any of the
elders the only reason they don't come and confiscate the estate is because
she never meddles in politics."
She wasn't a conformist? Which probably meant she did things she
shouldn't.Ah ! That might explain the flush. Shana's mouth twitched
involuntarily, and she fought down a surge of jealousy.
Valyn paused, as if searching for the right words. "Let me see if I
can make this clear to you. The elders opposed her becoming the head of the
Clan so much that she's never forgiven them, and she hates the Council as much
as they are contemptuous of her." He paused again to think. "I don't know
exactly how she's going to react to seeing halfbloods, but I do know this
much; she socializes with her humans, everyone in her personal household is [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]