"Gardner F. Fox - Kothar 01 - Kothar Barbarian Swordsman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fox Gardner F)

was no longer the hag but queen Elfa herself, naked in the grey smoke that
hid her fair white flesh.

She turned and saw him staring, in his dream, and she smiled with her
red, red lips and she lifted up her arms and turned, letting him see how
fair was her body through the veil of smoke. All the while she sang a
strange little song the like of which the barbarian had never heard.

And now—

The hag was gone. It was Elfa who stepped from the grey smoke, Elfa in
a scarlet kyrtle trimmed in miniver fur and thick with golden threadings.
There were tiny red slippers on her feet and great ruby rings on her white
fingers. Her heavy golden hair was done up in a caul of red garnets on a
golden chain. This was the queen of Commoral.

She came and stood beside him where he dreamed. He looked up at
her, and she bent and kissed his lips with her red, red mouth, and there
was a perfume and a fragrance about her which was very pleasant to
young Kothar. She slipped onto the fur robes with him and took him in
her soft arms and let him pillow his head so that he forgot she was Queen
Elfa, she was just a beautiful woman with golden hair. His heavily muscled
arm hooked her middle, yanked her down on top of him in his dream and
he held her banded to his body.

Delighted laughter woke him.

His dream had become reality. He held Elfa in his arms, and he was
kissing her and she struggled against his strength, laughing softly, for a
woman likes to be thought desirable, even a queen. For an instant longer
he held her, relishing the feel of her soft body before he reluctantly let her
go.

"You're a brute," she smiled, sliding away from him.

His giant chest lifted and fell, but he did not speak. Her wise green eyes
studied his huge body as she replaced a few tresses in her disarranged hair
with white, ringed fingers.

"Afgorkon must have put a fire in your blood," she murmured, glancing
at him sideways. Her red lips quivered with laughter. "He has told me you
can save my throne for me. He did not tell me you would all but rape me at
the same time."

His barbaric blood was in a ferment. Elfa was a tease-body, as was Red
Lori. Were all women? Kothar was a simple person, essentially. If a woman
pleased him, he took her to bed with him. If she did not, he ignored her.
 "What do you want with me?" he grumbled.

Her thin eyebrows lifted. "Oh, you're angry. I didn't mean to make you