"Huff, Tanya - Fire's Stone V1.1 Txt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

"Can you fix him, Karida?" he asked.

The healer snorted as she eased the cork out of a squat clay pot. "He's not a toy, Highness, that careless playing has broken and a glue brush and a steady hand can fix. He's a man. A young one, but a man. I wonder if you realize that."

"Of course I do," Darvish replied, mildly indignant.

"Then what do you plan on doing with him?" Karida set

the cork to one side and dipped the first three fingers of her right hand into the pot.
"You mean after you've finished gluing him back together?"
The tone was so guileless, she had to sternly suppress a smile. "Yes."
"I'm not entirely certain."
She glanced up, although her hand continued to gently spread the salve over the thief's burned chest. "You're not?"
Darvish smiled his fecklessly charming smile. "Why worry about it now."
The pain was cooling. Dulling. Drawing back its edges until it no longer was all that Aaron was. Groping like a blind man in new territory, he tried to find the rest of himself. Something firm but yielding cradled his back and head. A bed? Perhaps. It didn't fit where he felt he should be, but it seemed most likely. He began to distinguish separate pains in his arms and legs, but next to the great pain, they were nothing, so he ignored them.
Then he remembered.
He had failed. Again. And he hadn't died. Again.
And now it seemed he wasn't likely to.
The physical pain no longer seemed so great.
The moan escaped before he could stop it.
"He moaned!"
"You sound, Highness, as if you've taught him a new trick." Karida restoppered the jug and replaced it in the basket, then rose lithely to her feet in a single, fluid motion. "He is very ill. I will be staying."
"You don't have to," Darvish began, but she cut him off.
"I know I don't." The healers enjoyed relative autonomy within the palace hierarchy.
His smile softened for a second into an expression few were permitted to see. "Thank you for coming."
"You're welcome." She looked him up and down with a critical eye and added, her tone dry, "Besides, it makes a nice change from the lover's complaints you usually call me to take care of. How is that by the way?"
"All better." Darvish spread his arms as if inviting her to see for herself.
She declined the invitation. "And if you'd keep away from
42

Tanya Huff

THE FIRE'S STONE

43

those cheap whores, you'd stay better. If you must visit the marketplace, why can't you stick to the expensive establishments? The One knows you can afford it."

"Because high-class whores," Darvish told her with a wink, "are too little different from the ladies of the court. I'm looking for a change of pace after all."

"Highness." Oham bowed when the prince acknowledged him and continued, holding out an armload of red silk. "It is time to dress for evening court."

"And for my most exalted father. . . ." An eyebrow quirked at the healer. "Maybe it's a good thing you're staying."

"Darvish."

"Shahin. What a pleasant surprise." Darvish smiled at his eldest brother and extended the smile to include the guard that followed the heir even into the royal wing. The guard returned the smile. The heir did not. The heir merely looked down his hawklike nose with the expression of disgust he always wore in Darvish's presence.

"Are you drunk yet?"