"S. L. Viehl - Red Branch" - читать интересную книгу автора (Viehl S. L)

I drew the dirty knife, swiveled, and threw it. The shrieking became a
thick, brief gurgle. I turned back to Kerdup. “What noise?”
He shook his head. “I run a clean place here. You’ll have to go.” He eyed
the door. “And pay for the damages and the burial.”
“Fair enough.” I tossed him a kinspiece. “Have my ride saddled and
ready in an hour.”
He bit the coin and grinned at the taste of pure silver. “On second
thought, missus, maybe we could work something out.” He looked at my hands.
“I heard about your kind – ”
“Not interested. And I’ll take care of the body.” I slammed the ruined
door in Kerdup’s face.
The merc’s blood had been sprayed over the bed and the floor, so I
skirted around him and the mess and had my tea. It gave me time to clear my
thoughts and focus on the job the Orb had given me.
Find the son of Tal, she’d said, when I’d returned from my last hunt. The
jagged mark of her lineage glowed crimson against her black skin. Find him
and bring him to me.
I had never tracked or taken a human before – but then, I didn’t really like
them. Kerdup was right, they made too much noise. Alive?
The Orb had smiled. Oh, yes.
#
As I prepared for the final leg of my journey, I wondered again why I had
been given this task. It seemed a case of severe overkill, to send me after a
human, even if his father had offended the Orb. An offense that had sat
unanswered for nigh on twenty years, in fact.
Tal Bronif was a legend among humans, for the usual ridiculous reasons.
As part of some idiot warrior-test, his people had sent him into our territory to
capture a spinner and bring her back alive. According to the humans’ bards, Tal
had lured three of my sisters from the Garnet itself, then had crippled and
captured them. Stories circulated for years after that among the outer
settlements. Some humans said the three died of their injuries, others said they
were tortured to death. There were whispers that they were still alive, and were
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being forced to spin at Tal’s will. The thought of a human prevailing over a
spinner was what created all the excitement. That had never happened before.
None of it was true, which helped.
In reality three of my sisters had found Tal, bloodied and dying, and had
dragged his body out of the Garne. Human blood made the ground stink for
months. Along the way they were attacked by something genuinely dangerous –
a pack of feral wasp cats – and repelled them only to succumb to the numbing
venom. Tal’s men had evidently come upon the four of them on the edge of the
forest and transported their unconscious bodies back to Bronif Keepe.
Two of the sisters had found their way back to the Garne within a few
days, as soon as they had purged themselves of the venom. The pair had nearly
died of the monotony, if anything, but they recalled enough threads on the wasp
pack for my mother to use for tracking. She’d hunted and slaughtered the cats
the following day. Only the third, Gesa, did not return. For two seasons we
assumed her dead, until she walked in to the Garnet one morning and