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. Carly, you have to talk to Yulia, talk sense and sincerity and not like a Tirrinian, but as you do it.Becausemy people tried to kill her and when she looks at me that s what she sees. I m sorry, Xeras. You what&  You wanted her to see her son. There it is, Xeras replied. You see right through people.Now go and see right through her.I willjoin you by dawn.But there are things I must find out about Kassius and his intended.Things they probablyhaven t even told each other, scheming their separate schemes.In many ways they really are a perfectmatch& He pushed Carly away, but the duke caught his hand and held it. How are you so sure&  The dragons.I see how they see.I see a way though this&  As he spoke, the eye of Xeras s mindwas distracted by the thread that went not forward from where they stood, but back.Each dragon givingwww.samhainpublishing.com 101Emily Veinglorypower to a new group.Each group expanding its influence, growing, expending like a tick sucking up themagic given to it.Then shrinking into a bitter shadow of its former self, watching the next power rise andovershadow them.Was this the best future the people of Ballot s Keep could win? Xeras shook his head.He tried to draghimself back to the current moment, one man in the arms of another. Make sense to her, Xeras urged. Just as you are the only thing that has ever made sense to me, thatmakes sense of things for me.And as he pushed Carly away, he felt himself growing intangible again, unreachable. Damn it, Xeras. Speak to her, Carly, he said, but he wasn t sure if the words could be heard.He turned back towardsBallot s Keep knowing that, armed with this new ability, nothing could stop him now.Nothing but yourself.102 www.samhainpublishing.comChapter ElevenIt was a tenuous thing, this being and not being.He felt his form shimmer and fade.He turned andeasily walked right through the stone, dragon body and natural rock alike.It wasn t even dark inside, hecould see right through to the village.But the more he looked, the more he looked through, the less it allseemed real.The less it all seemed, quite literally, matter.Xeras tried to remember what he was doing.It was like some memory on waking, some remembranceof a dream.Where was he going? He dimly recalled the feeling of urgency, but not the object of thatfeeling.There was a man walking beside him.A handsome man with long, wildly curly hair and strong brows.Handsome and tall, it seemed like this was someone he knew someone he should know.But eventhinking that, Xeras felt the knowledge of his own identity fading away. Forgive me for this, the long-haired man said.Xeras felt himself grabbed roughly and slapped hard across the face.Xeras fell.And fell.And fell.Xeras came back to himself slowly, and with the growing awareness that he could not tarry here.Asever, Drin s voice was the backdrop to his confusion.So having found the duke and saved the duke we are now leaving him.I am beginning to understandhow things work in Xeras-land.If you love someone treat them badly, if you like a place avoid it, ifsomeone is trying to kill you, follow them to the ends of the earth.The only&Xeras curled on his side on the grimy cobbles. I could have held you. His mind was caught on thesensation of Drin s hands, Drin s hand so real and so tangible& pushing him away.And the three armies, Xeras.Remember the three armies.They are still coming. We were in the same place, Drin.Somehow we were in the same place.I could have touched you.But I didn t even remember who you were.Drin paused and spoke again in a more somber tone.Dragon magic, he said.It is for dragons.Isometimes think people were never meant to use it at all and it never seems to do them any good in thelong run.Some things, after all, just are not meant to be.Xeras felt himself collecting together again, returning to the present moment in waves, first likecobwebs and then like heavy, sodden blankets so that he could hardly bear the weight of it.The bindinggarb of his reckless acts and their unintended consequences.Emily VeingloryDrinia flopped out of the sky and crashed to the ground, skating towards him over the wet stone andtumbling into his arms.Xeras caught her reflexively.The little dragon had grown, her body the size of alarge rabbit now, with a sinuous neck like a snake and a delicate head with eyes that glinted like rubies.Hersmall clawed paws clutched his arm and held on, and she chirruped happiness to see him before cringingslightly as if she knew that she needed to stay quiet. It s all right, Xeras said softly. I bet you make less sound than me anyway.He heard a loud clomp, clomp, clomp of hooves coming down the close.Xeras leapt to his feet,clutching Drinia to his chest and whirling to face what he was sure would be a mounted Tirrinian soldiercoming to investigate the racket.It was Freckles the pony. You have to be kidding me, Xeras said.I think Jarvice let her through [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]