"Dave Duncan - Tales of King's Blades 4 - Impossible Odds" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

frowning, and three other Blades had emerged from the darkness to leer. All Blades looked much
alike—lean, athletic men of middle size, mostly in their twenties. The conjuration that bound them to
absolute loyalty to the King showed to her senses as an ethereal metallic glow, which she found very
becoming.


4Dave Duncan

“He’s a fast worker, our Bernie,” one said.
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“Gotta watch those rapier men.”

Horrors! Her face was on fire.

“That will do!” The fourth Blade was a little older and wore a red sash to show that he was in charge.
He tapped the cat’s-eye pommel of his sword. “Good chance to you, Mother Celandine.”

“And to you, Sir Valiant.”

“Do you know Sir Richey? SirAragon ? And our expert breaker of hearts, Sir Bernard?” The men
saluted in turn.

Mother Celandine nodded crisply to each salute. “This blushing maiden is Sister Gertrude.”

Jealous old hag!

“Known as Trudy to her friends,”Aragon remarked in an audible aside.

“We asked for White Sisters, not red ones,” Richey coun-tered.

Mortified, Trudy caught Bernie’s eye. He winked. She re-alized that he was showing off. The others’
crude humor was a form of flattery. She winked back.

“Why don’t you have more lights?” Celandine demanded, peering disapprovingly at the gloom.

“Blades see well in the dark,” Sir Valiant said, “but the real reason is that the visitors took every candle
and lamp they could find upstairs with them. The Baron said some-thing about liking lots of light. We’ll
make sure we have more tomorrow.”

The old lady sniffed. “Well, let’s get it over with. Carry on, Sister.”

Trudy led the way back to the door to begin. The lantern-bearing footmen followed, and the Blades
retreated to the staircase in the center, so their bindings would not distract the Sisters. Trudy closed her
eyes and listened. She inhaled, licked the roof of her mouth, queried her skin for odd sen-