"Kate Elliott - Jaran 4 - The Law of Becoming" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elliott Kate)

Bakhtiian and stared at her: at her brown hair and her fine, exotic features. Her calves and feet were
bare, but a silken robe of gold covered the rest of her. The fine sheen of the fabric caught the light,
shimmering as she moved forward through the chamber. She was pregnant. She was not a jaran
woman.

"You're the khaja princess!" he blurted out.

"Yes." She examined him. "What's your name again? Vasha?"

Her interest seemed benevolent enough, although he was not sure he could trust her. "Vassily
Kireyevsky."

"How old are you, Vasha?"

"I was born in the Year of the Hawk."

"And you've no father? Did your mother never marry?"

He hung his head in shame. Again, the truth had to be told. He wanted so desperately for them to
like him. "My mother never married. That's why my cousins wished to be rid of me."

"Inessa never married?" said Bakhtiian, sounding skeptical. "I find that hard to believe."

To Vasha's surprise, it was Nadine Orzhekov who came to his defense. She rested a hand on his
shoulder. He hadn't even known if she liked him. "They treated him poorly enough. They didn't want
him. That's why I thought he'd be better off here. Especially since Inessa claimed up until the day she
died that you were the boy's father."

Bakhtiian flung his head back. He looked astonished. He fairly crackled with life. "How can I be
his father? I never married her!"

"Vasha," commanded the khaja princess. "Come here." He obeyed, walking over to her. She
placed a finger under his chin and gently tilted his head back, the better to examine his face. She
was—-not beautiful like his mother, but strong, with her odd khaja features, and she measured him
kindly, with compassion in her eyes such as he had not seen since his grandmother died.

At that moment, he fell in love with her.

"It could be," she said generously. "There's a strong enough resemblance, once you look for it."

"But, Tess—"
 She cut off her husband ruthlessly. "Don't be stupid, Ilya." Then she lifted a hand and brushed
Vasha's dark hair lightly. "Vasha, do you know why your mother never married?"

He risked a look at Bakhtiian, who stood glowering at them. He swallowed, but knowing the
princess expected him to speak, he managed to. "Because she thought that Bakhtiian was coming
back to marry her. But he never did. And she never wanted anyone else." All at once he realized that
these words might offend the princess. He flushed, sick with worry. Bakhtiian's fixed expression
cowed him, and he was too afraid to look at the princess.