"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - The Room of Lost Souls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

That’s fair. Half would provide me a berth at Longbow and all of my
expenses for the rest of my life. I’d never have to touch the rest of my
money, the stuff I earned these past few years.

“Half up front,” I say, agreeing, “and half when I recover him—only if
you pay all expenses for the entire investigation and journey.”

“Investigation?” She frowns, as if she doesn’t like the word.

I nod. “Before I go after him, I need to know who he is.”

“I told you—”

“I need to know him, not his reputation.”

Her frown grows. “Why?”

“Because,” I say, “in all the hundreds of theories about that Room,
only one addresses the souls trapped inside.”

“So?”

“So haven’t you wondered how a man like your father got lost in
there?”

I can tell from her expression that she hasn’t considered that at all.

“Or why the name of the place—in all known languages—is the Room
of Lost Souls. Are the souls lost because they entered? Or were they lost
before they opened the door?”

She shifts slightly in her chair. She doesn’t like what I’m saying.

“You’ve thought of this before,” she says.

“Of course I have.” I keep my voice down.
 She nods. “You think he was lost before he went in?”

“I have no idea,” I say, “but I plan to find out.”

****

By the time I arrive at my berth, the money is in my account. That
surprises me. I thought, after our conversation, that Riya would back out.
She doesn’t want to know her father as a human being. She wants only the
image of him that she built up through her lonely childhood. The war hero
who vanished. The strong man who got trapped.

Not a sad survivor who might have gotten lost long before he opened