"Stephen Goldin - Scavenger Hunt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

knee-britches were rainbow velvet, shining in all colors at once, and so
tight that they might have been painted on. His codpiece was grossly
padded in immodest advertisement. His feet were contained in soft
leather boots that glided noiselessly along the smooth ballroom floor. His
hands were neatly gloved, the right in red and the left in yellow.

Jewelry flashed excitingly all about him. A string of diamonds circled
his head, tied at the back of the neck with two tassels. A ruby earring
sprouted from each ear. Tight bracelets encrusted with canary diamonds
circled his wrists. His belt was a row of emeralds, while his garters were
mosaic patterns of colored gems—rubies, emeralds, sapphires and
diamonds. There was a platinum spur on his right boot, but instead of a
rowel there was a small spherical projection that contained a large star
sapphire. And around his neck hung a clear plastic tube that seemed to
glow and sparkle—alive and warm, yet ever-changing in hue and pattern.
Upon closer inspection, Tyla saw that the tube was filled with hundreds of
small, living fire-beetles of all colors. It was their motion within their
crowded enclosure that produced the almost hypnotic display around
Jusser's neck. The fire-beetles were unbelievably expensive to obtain and
could live for only a few hours inside that tube, making Jusser's necklace
as ostentatious a display of wealth as Tyla's dress was of beauty.
Tyla hated him with a passion so intense it was a fire in her gut.

Jusser's smile was the one he always displayed, the sportsman, the
magnanimous winner, the charitable superior. God on the seventh day. "I
hope they were nice thoughts," he said.

"They were about you," Tyla reiterated quite noncommittally.

"You're looking exquisite this evening, my dear," Jusser murmured.
"But then, you always do."

"And you're just the same as ever," Tyla smiled back at him with
exaggerated sweetness.

Nillia Rathering could sense the upswelling of unpleasantness taking
place and decided that her attentions were wanted elsewhere. With a
graceful apology, she glided casually to a less intense corner of the hall.
Other people surrounding Tyla and Jusser also managed to drift towards
safer areas.

"It's certainly wonderful to see you again," Jusser said. He took her arm
so smoothly that she had no alternative but to let him. "I've missed you,
you know."

"You appear to have managed well enough while I was away."

"Of course I managed. I'm a winner, aren't I?"

"That depends," Tyla said carefully, "on the games you play."