"David Weber & Linda Evans - Hells Gate" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

today, but she had to admit he made a brave and dashing figure, standing there in the golden sunlight that
filtered down like shafts of molten butter through the gorgeously colored leaves overhead.
Jathmar's sun-bronzed face broke into a broad grin as her delight sparkled to him through their
marriage bond.
"It is a good morning, isn't it?" he observed. "Even with my unheroic figure squarely in the middle of
it."
"Oh, absolutely!" Shaylar laughed.
"You wound me, woman." His long face took on a crestfallen tragedy that would have fooled anyone
else. "You weren't supposed to agree with me!"
"My dear, you're armed and dangerous enough to take on any black bears, timber wolves, wild
boars, or cougars native to this part of the world." She batted her eyelashes at him. "What more could
any delicately reared maiden ask?"
"Hah! That's more like it!"
He waggled his eyebrows and swaggered over for his good-morning kiss. Rather, his fifth
good-morning kiss since they'd rolled out of their sleeping bags, twenty minutes previously, she thought
with an inner laugh as he enfolded her in his arms. Jathmar Nargra was nothing if not an opportunist. And
since they'd spent the vast bulk of the past four years in the company of forty unmarried men—give or
take the odd one or two security types who'd hired on, then decided to homestead, or gotten eaten by
the odd crocodile—Jathmar made the most of whatever opportunities came his way.
So did Shaylar, for that matter. Since most of the universes explored to date did have cougars in this
region, and since—so far as anyone had been able to tell after eighty years of constant
exploration—every portal's universe was very nearly identical to every other, Shaylar didn't mind in the
least Jathmar's tendency to run about armed like a proper brigand. His various bits and pieces of lethal
hardware might get in the way at moments like this, but that was just fine with her.
When Jathmar finally decided their kiss had been adequate, for now, at least, he stepped back, and
she grinned as she noticed the sketchbook peeking out of his rucksack.
"Planning to loaf today, are we?" she inquired sweetly, and his clear hazel eyes twinkled.
"Tease me all you like, faithless wench. One of these days, I'll have to beat the art buyers off with a
club, and we'll find ourselves retired, rich, and happy."
"I'm happy now," she smiled. "And with all of this," she swept an expansive arm at the pristine
wilderness surrounding them, "who needs to be rich?"
"Who, indeed?" he echoed, brushing a lock of raven-black hair from her brow. A few strands always
escaped the practical braids she wore while in the field. "You really are happy," he said, smiling as he
read her emotions through the special bond between married Talents. "I worried about it, you know.
When we first started our crusade to place you on a field team."
"Yes, I know," she said softly. "And I know how hard you pushed the Board to pull it off."
"Halidar Kinshe turned the tide of opinion, not me," Jathmar demurred. "And you've known the
Parliamentary Representative a lot longer than I have, dear heart. Still," he grinned, "if you want to lavish
thanks on your husband's humble head, far be it from me to discourage you."
"You," she said severely, swatting him with her rolled up tube of charts, "are incorrigible!"
"Not at all. Encouragable, now . . . "
She laughed as he waggled his eyebrows again. Then he tipped his head up to peer through the
crimson and golden clouds of fall foliage high overhead.
"It is a grand morning for sketching, isn't it? Not to mention perfect weather for a survey. The mist
ought to burn off early, I think."
"Not that you need a clear day," Shaylar chuckled. Jathmar's Talent was the ability to "see" terrain
features in a five-mile circle around him, regardless of weather or ambient light—or the complete lack
thereof. "But weather like this should make the hike more exhilarating. I'll give you that. In fact, I think I'm
jealous about being stuck in camp while you go gadding about!"
"You're happy as a pearl in a bed of oysters," he told her, tweaking her nose gently. "Besides, after