"David Zindell - Ea Cycle 04 - The Diamond Warriors" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zindell David)

discuss it over dinner? For more miles than I can tell you, I've been hoping to sit
down to some of Behira's roast beef and few glasses of your excellent beer.'
At the mention of his daughter's name, I felt something inside Lord Harsha tighten,
and he said to Maram, 'It's been a bad year, as you will find out, and so you will
have to settle on some chops of lamb or perhaps a roasted chicken. But beer we still
have in abun-dance - surely Behira will be glad to pour you all you can drink.'
He motioned for us to follow him, and we led our horses around his field toward his
house. Although I still felt a dark presence watching my every movement, Lord
Harsha seemed completely unaware of the Ahrim or that we had fought a battle for
our lives scarcely an hour before. As we passed the barn and drew up closer to the
house, he called out in his gruff voice: 'Behira - come out and behold what the wind
has blown our way!'
A few moments later, the thick wooden door of the house opened, and Lord
Harsha's only remaining child stepped out to greet us. Like Lord Harsha, Behira was
sturdy of frame and wore a rough woolen tunic gathered in with a belt of black
leather. With her ample breasts and wide hips that Maram so appreciated, my mother
had once feared that Behira might run to fat. But time had treated this young woman
well, for she had lost most of her plumpness while retaining all that made her pretty,
and more. Her long hair gleamed a glossy black like a sable's coat, and her large,
lovely eyes regarded Maram boldly, and so with the rest of us. I might have
expected that she would run out and fall into Maram's arms, but time had changed
her in other ways, too. The rather demure and good-natured girl, it seemed, had
become a proud and strong-willed woman.
'Lord Marshayk!' she called out to Maram with an uncomfort-able formality. 'Lord
Elahad! You've come back!'
So it went as she greeted all of us in turn, and then her gaze drew back to Maram. I
sensed in her a churning sea of emotions: astonishment; shame; adoration;
confusion. I felt hot blood burning up through her beautiful face as she said, 'Oh,
but we've much to talk about, and you will all want a good hot bath before we do. I'll
go and heat the water.'
And with that she bowed to us, and went back into the house. The explanations for
her strange behavior, I thought, would have to wait until we cleaned ourselves. After
Behira had filled the cedarwood tub in the bathing room, we went inside the house
and took turns immersing our bodies in steaming hot water: first Atara, Liljana and
Estrella took a rare pleasure in washing away their cares, and then Master Juwain,
Maram, Daj and I. While Master Juwain and Daj were pulling on fresh tunics. Lord.
Harsha came into the wood-paneled bathing room to inform us that dinner would
soon be ready. He eyed the strange, round scars marring Maram's great hairy body,
but did not remark upon them. He seemed to be waiting for a more appropriate
moment to tell of things that he was loath to tell and to hear of things that he might
not want to hear.
At last, when we were all well-scrubbed and attired in clean clothing, Lord Harsha
called us to dinner at his long table just off his great room. As we were about to take
our seats, the clopping of a horse's hooves against the dirt lane outside made me
draw my sword and hurry over to the door. I said to Lord Harsha, 'We have
enemies we haven't told you about, and we are not ready to make our presence
known.'
'It's all right,' he said to me as he stood by the window and peered out into the
twilight. 'It's only Joshu Kadar - in all the excitement, I forgot to tell you that we've
invited him to dinner. Surely you can trust him.'