"Tanya Huff - Kigh 2 - Fifth Quarter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

murmurs of the bath attendants as they scrubbed her brother. It made no
difference that they'd murmur the same nonsense over her had she not made it
very clear that she preferred to wash herself. Fingers puckering, she sighed and
dragged herself out of the tub.

"You're too skinny, sister-mine. You should eat more."

Vree snorted and straightened, reaching for one of the soft cloths hanging on the
line beside her. "I'll remind you of that at the next wall we have to go over."

"And I'll deny every word." He lifted an arm and tried to snake it around the
slender waist of the departing attendant. She twisted lithely away, damp braid
flicking a practiced dismissal as she left. Bannon turned to her companion who
backed up a step.

"Forget it, Bannon," the young man declared, tossing a cloth at the tub and
covering a yawn. "You're finished, and we're closing."

A few moments later, as the lamps went out behind them, Bannon rubbed a
dribble of water off the back of his sister's neck and asked, "Coming with me?"

Vree shook her head. "No." He always asked. The answer never changed. After a
kill, he needed distraction, but she needed quiet. "You going to Teemo's?"

The whores at Teemo's were regularly inspected by the army healers. An empire

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had not been won by either ignoring the needs of its soldiers or the consequences
of disease.

"I thought I might."

"Remember we're working tomorrow night. Don't stay too late."

His sigh lifted the damp hair off her forehead as he leaned forward and smacked
a kiss down on the crease between her brows. "Don't fuss, sister-mine. I'm old
enough to take care of myself."

Old enough. As she watched him stride away, Vree heard the echo of a piping
voice demanding to know why she always had to be older and when would it be
his turn. Sometimes that one year difference stretched impossibly far. The one
year between six and seven; the corporal had brought the news of their mother's
battlefield death to her, she'd had to tell Bannon. The one year between fourteen
and fifteen; Neegan had wanted them both in his command, had been able to pull
enough strings to get them there, so she'd been held back for further training
until army regulations said Bannon was old enough to be posted. The one year
between twenty and twenty-one… Old enough.