"Barbara Hambly - Sun Wolf 2 - Witches of Wenshar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hambly Barbara)

After a long pause, Kaletha said, "I agree. We both asked each
other unfair questions. And I think we're each three-fourths sure we
know the answers, both to our own and the other's ... but only
three-fourths." She looked down at the small plate of bread and kefir
before her for a moment, then back at Starhawk, a spark of genuine
warmth in her eyes. She held out her hand. "Will you join our company
only for company, then? I, for one, would be pleased if you would."
The door on the dais that led through to the King's solar opened
abruptly, and Sun Wolf emerged, followed immediately by Osgard
himself. The King's face was mottled alcoholic red and pasty white, and
he was limping heavily, but fended off Sun Wolf's single offer of
assistance. Kaletha's brows snapped together; she got swiftly to her
feet, black robe billowing as she strode towards him. "My Lord ... "
He waved her angrily away. "I don't need your damned help, and I
don't need your damned advice, either!" he roared. "I'm not a
weakling! Hell, back when we were fighting Shilmarne's armies in the
passes, I went through six hours of fighting with a shattered kneecap!"
Her voice thin, Kaletha said, "You were thirty then, my Lord, not
fifty, and you hadn't been drinking."
"What's my age got to do with it, woman?" he bellowed back. "Or
what I drink or how much I drink, for that matter? Where's that boy of
mine?"
Frostily, she said, "Your son, my Lord, is not my responsibility."
"Well, you're supposed to be a damn wizard, you should know.
Nanciormis ... " He swung around in time to see the tall commander
step easily up onto the dais. "You're supposed to have him for sword
practice now."
Nanciormis shrugged. "I presumed other duties called him, for he
did not come."
Balked of that prey, Osgard looked around for other and lighted
on his daughter Tazey, who was consuming the last of her bread and
posset with the swift care of one who proposes to escape unnoticed.
"Where's your brother?" the King demanded, and Tazey, who had just
taken a bite of bread, looked up at him, startled. "Hiding again, I
daresay-in that damned library, most like. Send that ... " He looked
around again, and his eye lighted on Anshebbeth, down at Kaletha's
table. Anshebbeth quailed visibly, and her thin hand went to her throat
as he roared, "Why the hell aren't you up here with my daughter where
you belong, woman? I don't keep you in my household to gossip with
your girlfriends."
Tazey rose quickly. "I'll find Jeryn, Father."
"You'll sit down, girl. 'Shebbeth's your governess, and her duty is
to keep beside you, not to go wandering off. Now go fetch him,
woman!"
For one instant Anshebbeth sat rigid, her lips flattened into a thin
line of anger and humiliation; then she got quickly to her feet and
disappeared through a narrow door into the turret stair. She wasn't out
of earshot when Osgard added to Sun Wolf, "Twitter-witted old
virgin's enough to give any man the fidgets."
Starhawk buttered another hunk of bread as Kaletha came back