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incalculable value for the chatelaine of the manor or the commander of its
defenses. The office walls were all win-dow, and he wondered as he stepped
gingerly off the platform what a storm would be like up here.
Lydiell greeted him with a smile, which made his apprehen-sion
vanish. She even rose; that was an unexpected honor, andhe bowed as deeply as
he could without looking ridiculous. The Lady did not like groveling; none of
her clan did.
"Sergeant Gel, please, make yourself easy," she said, as she gestured
with that grace only the Elvenlords possessed towards an unoccupied chair.
"This is not an official summons rather, it is a personal one. I have a desire
to consult you."
Tenebrinth evidently took this as the signal to depart; hestepped
back on the little platform and discreetly dropped back to the next level,
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
leaving them alone.
Gel took his seat and examined the Lady's face, and swiftly
understood why she wanted to see him. "Kyrtian?" he asked,wasting no words.
She nodded, and took her place behind her desk, clasping herhands on
the surface before her. "I had hoped," she said, hesi-
tantly, as if she was voicing thoughts long held in secret, "that I
could keep Kyrtian isolated from the politics of the Great Lords and the
Council. Unfortunately, it seems that the times conspireagainst my hopes."
"It does look like he's going to get tangled up whether he likes it
or not," Gel said cautiously, his eyes never leaving her face, unnerving as it
was to look her straight in the eyes. "MyLady, I don't mind telling you that I
don't like the idea any bet-ter than you do."
"I'm not certain you realize justhow tangled he's likely to get,"
Lydiell replied, a faint frown-line creasing her ageless brow. Gel couldn't
for the life of him read those odd emeraldeyes the Elvenlords all had, but at
least she wasn't trying to hide her facial expressions. "Lord Kyndreth is not
going to becontent merely to learn a few tricks with magic to help train
hu-mans when he realizes just how extensive Kyrtian's knowl-edge and practical
experience of military matters is, he is going to want my son to exercise his
talents in the service of the OldLords. He will certainly want Kyrtian to
command a force against the Young Lords, and possibly keep him on after
theYoung Lords are crushed, to move against the Wizards and the wild humans."
Gel swore under his breath, angry at himself for not thinking of that
himself. And it was far too late to try to talk Kyrtian outof abandoning the
full-scale maneuvers he had planned. Theboy was determined to prove to Lord
Kyndreth that this was theonlyway to train fighters, and nothing would do but
to showhim how easy it was to hold the spells needed on entire armies.
Lady Lydiell sighed. "Your face tells me that my fears are likely to
be realized. Oh,why couldn't he have been an artist ora musician, or obsessed
with with oh,horticulture or some- thing equally frivolous?"
"At least he isn't bent on being the dead opposite of his fa-ther, my
Lady," Gel replied grimly. "You'd not like him as a fop, or a lazy layabout.
Or worse, falling in with "
He hesitated; after all, he was a human, and Lydiell was El- ven.
Blood was blood
But Lydiell surprised him with a bitter smile and a light an-
swer. "Falling in with the pampered perverts that most of my kind
are. You don't need to spare my feelings, Gel; we cannotafford to be less than
honest with each other if we are going to be able to keep Kyrtian out of the
pitfalls lying before him."
Ah, cowflops. Why do I have to feel like it's methat's his fa-ther?
I'd rest easier at night.He might be only a few actualyears older than
Kyrtian, but in real terms, he might just as well have been the Elvenlord's
father. By the standards of his race, Kyrtian was the equivalent of a
stripling, although by humanreckoning he was in his late thirties. In
knowledge and general responsibility, he was certainly that but in the
unconsciousthings that characterized an adolescent, he was very much
Gel'sjunior. His boundless energy, his enthusiasm, his tendency to act rather
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Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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