"Huff, Tanya - We Two May Meet" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

"Prude."
"Slut."
Magdelene-one stuck out her tongue, flickered once, and glared across the room. "You stopped me! How dare you stop me!"
Hands on her hips, Two returned the glare. "Have you forgotten why we came up here?" A half turn and a sharp wave toward the large oval mirror in the rosewood stand. "We must discover who did this to us!"
"Why?"
"So that we can undo it."
"Why?" One asked again, dropping down onto the huge pile of multicolored cushions that filled most of the floor space. "Personally, I think I'm better off without you dragging me down."
"Me dragging you down?" the other Magdelene snorted, turning to the mirror. "Oh, that's a laugh."
The mirror—an expensive replacement after a wizard wannabe had broken her original trying to use the demon trapped inside— showed nothing but a reflection of both Magdelenes.
"You've broken it!"
"I haven't done anything."
"Oh, you never do do anything, do you?"
"At least I know how to enjoy myself," Magdelene-one pointed out. She flashed her double a sunny smile and vanished.
"At least I won't end up with sand in unmentionable places," Two sneered to an empty room.
"Where . . . ?"
"The village. She is such an embarrassment, Kali." Lowering herself into a chair, legs crossed at the ankles, Magdelene-two quivered with apprehension. "I shudder just thinking of how she's perceived."
"The villagers have always treated her—you—with respect, Mistress."
"But she's so . . ." Manicured nails beat out a staccato beat against the polished wood of the table as she searched for a description that managed to be both accurate and polite and managed only: ". . . enthusiastically athletic."
"From what I have heard, they respect that as well, and I have received the impression on a number of occasions that some are rather in awe." Kali set a lightly steaming cup of tea on the table by the wizard. "Did you discover who is responsible for this division?"
Magdelene-two took a ladylike sip of tea and sighed. "I'm afraid not. The mirror is nonfunctional and showed only our reflections. Whoever divided us in two must have disabled it in order to cover their tracks."
The demon nodded thoughtfully.
What's this?" Magdelene-one blinked down at the lightly steamed vegetables and the poached fish on her plate.
Kali placed a pitcher of water and a glass on the table. "Lunch, Mistress. High in fiber, low in fat. Your double ordered it."
"Then why isn't my double here eating it?"
"She remains in the workshop, delving in eldritch realms to discover the cause of your affliction."
"Hey, it's nothing a little salve won't cure. Oh, our affliction. Right. Well, she's going to get us into trouble with that whole eldritch realms thing. It's likely to bring on an angry crowd of villagers with torches and pitchforks. And, hang on, I don't have a workshop."
"She has added one on, Mistress."
"And you just let her?"
"I am her housekeeper as much as yours, Mistress. If you are unhappy with her decision, perhaps you should confront her yourself."
"Yeah, probably, but I don't really feel much like doing it now. Maybe later." A lazy flick of a knifepoint teased apart two translucent flakes of white flesh. "Any chance of getting some tartar sauce with this?"
"What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Magdelene-two demanded. She tossed a cushion onto the ground, dropped to her knees on the cushion, and began inscribing runes in the fresh earth. "I'm laying out protective wards around the house."
"Didn't there used to be cat mint there?"
"Do you want what happened last night to happen again?" Magdelene-two sniffed, ignoring the actual question.
Magdelene-one settled back down in the hammock and scratched at her bare stomach. "Don't see how it can. We're already in two pieces."
"And what would you say to four pieces?"
"Five card draw, monkey's wild, it'll cost you a caravan to open."
Magdelene-two sniffed again. "You're making absolutely no sense."
"With four," her double sighed, "we'd have enough for poker."
"You think you're very funny, don't you? You're just lucky you have me to take care of things."
A tanned hand waved languidly in the hot afternoon air. "Whatever makes you happy, sister."
"Don't call me that!" Two protested, vehemently tucking an escaped strand of hair back behind her ear. "I'm not your sister, I'm you!"
"Then I really need a nap. I'm not usually this cranky."
"Kali, what is this?"
"Supper, Mistress." Thankful that the kitchen was one of the more anchored rooms, Kali put down the plate of spiced prawns in garlic butter. "Your double ordered it." When faced with the inevitable, she felt she might as well just say the lines assigned.
Magdelene-two's lip curled. "Then why isn't my double here eating it?"
"There was a delivery from the village this afternoon."
"A delivery of what?"
"I do not know. He never reached the house."
"Why not?"