"Andre Norton & Lackey, Mercedes - Elvenbane 2 - Elvenblood" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

So I am to be trotted out like one of Father's prize mares, for all the
unattached lords to check my paces and my teeth. Just as Lorryn is trotted
about like a prize stallion, displayed to the fathers of all the maidens in our
circle. Father's will is everything. She was too well schooled to show her
distaste, but her unhappiness sat in her middle, a lump of sour ice, and made
her throat ache with tension. The maids fussed with the lacings on the side of
the overgown as she closed her burning eyes for a moment to fight for
control and serenity.

It was hard, hard, to maintain that well-schooled serenity, especially in light
of the ordeal to come. She had never been comfortable with strangers; the
few times that her father had summoned her to be displayed--presumably
with an eye to a possible marriage--she had wanted to crawl under the rug
and hide. The prospect of being trussed into this torture device disguised as a
gown and spending the entire evening displaying herself to dozens,
hundreds, of strangers was enough to make her physically ill.

"--and this lacing must be tighter, please try not to breathe heavily--"

Her mother had been trying to convince her for weeks that this was going to
be a golden opportunity for her. This would be her one, perhaps her only,
chance to make a marriage that would satisfy her father and herself. This
was a rare chance to actually meet some of the lords looking for brides
before one of them was foisted on her. She might actually find some young
elven lord there that she liked', someone who would allow her to continue
her excursions outside the bower, rather than confining her to the space
within the walls of the women's quarters as so many elven lords insisted was
proper.

Her mother's arguments had included those, and many other persuasive
blandishments in the same vein. Her mother claimed she understood
Sheyrena's feelings of doubt, the unsettling thoughts that had been moving
through her mind of late, and her reluctance to contract any marriage. And
what would Mother know about it? Viridina an Treves has never had an
inappropriate thought in her life. She has always been the perfect, obedient
Lady, pliant and pleasant, willing to be whatever her father and her Lord
wished her to be... How could someone like that ever understand the restless
thoughts passing through her daughter's mind these days?

"Hold your arm here, please, my lady."
Right now Sheyrena would have given everything she owned to be able to
catch some kind of illness, as the humans did in order to have an excuse to
stay at home. But for all their outward fragility, elven women were as
immune to such things as the males of their kind.

And it's too late for me to manufacture mind-storms like Lorryn has. No one
would believe a bout of head pain coming now was anything other than a
ruse.

She turned at her maids' direction, raising and lowering her arms, while they