Prince of the Blood. Raymond E. Feist

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      Both brothers said nothing. At last Kulgan turned back toward the imposing edifice of Stardock. ‘It’s turning cool. I’ll find me a fire to warm myself next to. You go find whatever trouble you can.’ After he took a few steps, Kulgan halted, turned and said, ‘And be cautious of some of our fisher lads. Make free with their women and they’ll have their scaling knives out before they remember you’re royalty.’ He studied the twins’ faces a long moment, then added, ‘Take care of yourselves, boys.’

      Borric and Erland watched the old magician head back to the entrance of the main building of the Academy, then resumed their walk to the ferry. As they came to the beach, Erland said, ‘What do you think?’

      Borric said, ‘About what he said? I think he’s an old man with a lot of strange ideas.’

      Erland nodded in agreement as they signalled to the ferryman they wished to cross to the beckoning lights of the distant town. While they waited, Borric turned and stared into the gloom at the doors where Kulgan had passed. For a brief moment he pondered the old magician’s words, and wondered if the reason he felt so uncomfortable with what Kulgan said was because he didn’t understand what Kulgan said, or because he did understand what Kulgan said.

      The wind blew softly as Gamina and James walked along the shore, silently sharing the evening. James felt both invigorated and exhausted. In his thirty-seven years he had shared little of himself with anyone. True intimacy seemed impossible for him, but in Gamina he found someone able to break past previously unbreachable defences. No, it wasn’t that way, he amended silently to himself. She hadn’t broken past anything. She simply found the door waiting for her to open.

      A scented breeze blew out of the south, the fragrance of distant orchards and fields in bloom across the Vale of Dreams. Middle moon rose in the east, a copper disc in the dark night approaching. James turned to his intended bride. He marvelled at the arch of her neck, the way her fine pale hair seemed to float about her face and shoulders, a nimbus of white tinged smoky grey in the twilight. Her pale eyes regarded him, then she smiled and his spirit leaped. ‘I love you,’ she said.

      ‘I love you,’ he said, not quite believing his own joy. ‘And I must leave you.’

      She turned to watch the moon for a long moment, then her thoughts came to James. No, my love. My time here is over. I will journey to Kesh with you.

      James gathered her into his arms. ‘It’s dangerous. Even for one of your gifts, there will be peril.’ He kissed her neck and felt her shiver slightly in response. ‘I would be more content within my mind with you safely here.’

      Would you? she asked. I wonder … She stepped slightly away and studied his face in the fading light. ‘I fear you might retreat within yourself, Jimmy, and after a time you would convince yourself what we have found here was an illusion and those barriers against love and pain would then be restored, stronger, higher, and more firmly buttressed than ever before. You would find a reason to journey back to Krondor another way, and you would find reasons to postpone your return to Stardock. For a time you would convince yourself that you intended to come for me as soon as possible, but there would be one reason then another to keep you away. And always one reason or another to keep you from sending for me. After a time, you would simply put all this away from your heart and forget.’

      James looked stung. Newly discovered feelings rampaged through him and his usual pose of relaxed confidence was absent. He looked nothing more than the boy he had never truly been, confused and disturbed by the loving attentions of a woman. ‘Do you think so little of me, after all?’

      Touching his cheek, she smiled, and the warmth of her loving gaze swept away the fear again, as it had a dozen times during the day. Gamina had read James’s heart and soul when she had revived him upon the lakeshore and had shared herself with him, both her body and heart. Still, trust for James was grudgingly surrendered, even to the woman who had touched him as no other had. ‘No, love, I do not underestimate you. But I also do not underestimate fear. My talents are not just magic as others upon this island know it. My skills are also in healing the mind and heart. I can share things with those who are weakened in spirit and sick of mind, and help them, sometimes. I can listen to dreams. And I have seen what fear can do. You fear being left again as you were by your mother.’

      James knew she was right. Even as she spoke, the feelings of that dreadful night returned, when as a child of six or seven he stole out of his mother’s crib, the stickiness upon the floor her blood, the horror of knowing only utter abandonment. Unbidden tears came to James’s eyes. Gamina gathered him into her arms and let him vent his pain. You will never be alone again, came her thoughts in his mind.

      He stood motionless, holding her as if she were his only connection to life. And as it had before, the pain slipped away, leaving behind a tired but warm and relieved feeling. Something angry and festering within him for years had been lanced, and poisonous fear and loneliness were draining away. The wound wouldn’t heal in the space of a single day, or even many days, but in time it would heal and James of Krondor would be the better man for the healing. Her voice came to him as she said, And it is my fear speaking, as well. Doubt can make us all vulnerable.

      ‘I have no doubt,’ he answered simply. She smiled as she again hugged him tight.

      The sounds of footfalls upon the ground and a pointed clearing of a throat signalled Locklear’s arrival. ‘Sorry to intrude, but Pug would like to see you, James.’ He smiled apologetically. ‘And your mother would like you to join her in the kitchen, Gamina.’

      ‘Thank you,’ Gamina answered. She gifted Locklear with a warm smile and kissed James on the cheek. ‘I will see you at dinner.’

      He kissed her again, and she headed toward the kitchen. James and Locklear walked toward Pug’s study. Locklear cleared his throat in a significant, theatrical manner.

      James said, ‘You’ve got something on your mind. Out with it.’

      Locklear’s words came in a rush. ‘Look, we’ve known each other, what, twenty-two years? In all that time I’ve never known you to show the least bit of interest in women—’ James gave him a strange look and he amended that to, ‘—I mean interest in marriage, at least. Now, out of nowhere, you suddenly walk in and announce to all that you’re getting married! I mean, she’s certainly a beauty, with that nearly-white hair and all, but you’ve known—’

      ‘I’ve known no one, nothing, like Gamina,’ Jimmy interrupted. He stopped his companion with a restraining hand to Locklear’s chest. ‘I don’t know if someone like you can understand, Locky, but she’s seen inside of me. She’s seen all there is to see, the bad I’ve done and felt, the things that I’ve only hinted at to you, and she loves me despite those things. She loves me, anyway!’ He took a deep breath. ‘You will never know what that means.’

      He resumed walking and Locklear hesitated an instant before catching up. ‘What do you mean “someone like you”?’

      James halted again. ‘Look, you’re the best friend – perhaps the only real friend – I’ve ever known, but when it comes to women … you have no … consideration. You’re charming, you’re attentive, you’re persistent, and when the lady in question wakes up in your bed, you’re gone. I don’t know if you’ve ever really loved a woman, and sometimes, I’m not entirely sure you really even like them. You certainly don’t take their feelings into account. Why some woman’s brother or father hasn’t run a sword through you … When it comes to you and women, Locky, you just are not very constant.’

      ‘And you are?’

      ‘I СКАЧАТЬ