"Anne Bishop - Black Jewels 00 - The Invisible Ring" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bishop Anne)

*It seems my Lady requires some entertainment,* Daemon said. There was
something beneath the bland tone that made Jared wonder if the Lady wasn't
going to be very sorry she'd made that threat. *May the Darkness embrace
you, Lord Jared,* Daemon said as he offered his arm to the Lady and started
to walk away. *And you, Prince Sadi.* Jared replied.
They were out of sight when Daemon's last words reached him. *That guard's
going to come down with a mysterious fever. He'll recover, but he'll never
regain enough strength in his limbs to resume his duties. What use do you
think a man like that will have in a place like Raej?* Jared shuddered,
grateful Sadi had already broken the link between them. He owed Daemon a
great deal, but there were things about the Sadist he preferred not to know.
Another fly landed on his cheek.
Jared closed his eyes, and tried not to think. Tried not to remember. And
failed.

* * *

When he opened his eyes again, the day had waned to dusk. At any moment,
the bell that signaled the end of that day's auctioning would ring. The
Blood Lords and Ladies who came to buy preferred to do so in harsh sunlight
that didn't hide flaws that wouldn't be as apparent when a naked slave was
displayed in muted candle-light or, better yet, flickering torchlight. He
saw the guard standing outside the pen, watching him. Not one of the usual
brutes. The badge on the clean uniform jacket indicated that this was one of
the guards who hired out as an escort. It was a fixed rule at the auction;
Ladies were required to hire two of Raej's guard escorts to help with any
slaves they might purchase. Since the man was alone, his partner was
probably guarding the slaves that had already been purchased. Which still
didn't explain why the man was wandering around near the pens that held the
most-condemned males. It still didn't explain why the bastard was staring at
... Something crept through the air. Something tantalizing. Something
intriguing. A psychic scent that made his heart speed up and his muscles
quiver. A scent that made the wild stranger inside him strain toward it,
wary and eager- and hungry. A Queen's scent.
Jared looked at the empty space beside the guard escort. Except it wasn't
empty. Despite feeling certain of what he would see, he looked straight at
her and still almost didn't see her. She was gray, and stood so still she
blended into the dust and the waning light and the taste of despair. No. No!
Not that one. He began hoping, desperately, that the auction bell would
ring. Then, maybe, if the Darkness was kind, she wouldn't return in the
morning, wouldn't come back to stare at him with those hard gray eyes. There
were a few courts where being a slave was almost tolerable. There were
others where every command abraded a man's soul. In the slave quarters,
stories and rumors were fearfully whispered in the dark. Warnings and advice
were passed along. Because of that, the slaves had a saying: the bite of a
lash was better than being owned by Dorothea SaDiablo; being owned by
Dorothea was better than dying in the salt mines of Pruul; but dying in the
salt mines was better, far better, than being touched by Grizelle, the Gray
Lady. No slave who went into her Territory ever came out again. No slave
survived being owned by the Gray-Jeweled Queen who was standing outside the