"Katherine Kerr - Deverry 10 - The Black Raven" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kerr Katherine)

Shaetano winced and looked down at the floor.
'I didn't mean to do that. Truly! He came bursting in here with a sword in his
hand and iron cloth all over his chest. It stung me like fire. I was halt-mad
from it.'
'And you did what?'
'I just wanted to make him go away.' Shaetano's voice slipped and wavered. 'I
shoved him, and the iron stung me, and so I threw him back against the wall.'
He looked up, and his eyes gleamed green in the silver witch-light. 'I didn't
know how hard. His head - it hit the stone.'
'Why wasn't there a mark on him then, where his skull got smashed?'
Caught in his lie Shaetano snarled and flung up both hands. Evandar crossed
his arms over his chest and merely looked at him. In a moment Shaetano looked
down.
'I don't know how I killed him. I did somewhat, I waved my hands at him
because of the stinking iron. And rage flew out, and somehow his life - it
spilled away.'
'What did this rage look like?'
'Naught. I mean, it wasn't a thing you could see. But he screamed and flung
himself back and - and died.'
"You truly don't know what killed him?'
'I don't.' Shaetano looked up, and suddenly he snarled again. 'Oh, and what's
it to you?'
'My heart aches for his young widow. Little Niffa. She mourns him every day
still.'
Shaetano stared at him, his mouth half-open, White fangs gleamed.
'What's this, younger brother?' Evandar said with a grin. 'I see the word
grief means naught to you. Let me tell you an interesting thing. I now know a
great many things that you don't. I learn more daily, and soon one of them
will be how I may dispose of you.'
With one last snarl, Shaetano vanished. Evandar stood in the empty temple and
laughed.
Councilman Verrarc was sitting at a table in his great room when Raena came
home. As a merchant's son, Verrarc had learned to read, but books to practise
upon, as opposed to merchants' agreements and city laws, were scarce in Cerr
Cawnen. He still read slowly, sounding words out one at a time, pausing often
to look terms up in the home-made word list at his elbow. He was glad enough
to lay his scroll aside at the distraction when, shivering in her thick green
cloak, Raena hurried in. Without a word to him she rushed to the fire burning
in the hearth and held her hands out to the warmth.
'What be wrong, my sweet?' he said.
'Naught.' Raena busied herself in taking off the cloak.
'Somewhat did turn you all pale and shivering.'
'It be cold out there, Verro.'
'Not as cold as all that.'
With a toss of her long black hair, Raena turned her back on him. She hung the
cloak on a peg on the wall, then walked over to look at his work.
'What be those squiggly things?' she said.
'Words.' He paused, smiling at her. 'Here, look! To read these out, you do
start here at the top on the right, and you do read straight across. At the
end of the row you do drop down and read back the other way.'