"Bard's Tale 03 - Prison of Souls - Mercedes Lackey & Mark Shepherd 1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bard's Tale)

go off to copy some old manuscript. Aidan didn't tell
him how important it was."
"If Aidan was an old man, then wasn't Carlotta an
old woman?" Alaire asked, puzzled.
"Yes, and no." Naitachal frowned. "Carlotta was half
fairy and a shape-changer. Because of her fairy blood
she lived as long as any halfling. As a shape-changer
she could simply shift herself out of the ravages of old
age. By that time, she had also mastered many of the
Darker Arts. She was a fair match for anyone."
Alaire had never heard this before. Now he knew
why. A member of the royal family was a halfbreed,
and she was practicing black magic? Good gods, no
wonder they wanted to keep this secret.
Naitachal took no notice of his shock. "Kevin was all
alone in an unfriendly place, so it wasn't hard for Car-
lotta to learn what Aidan had sent him to do. She won
Kevin's confidence by assuming the form of Volmar's
pretty young niece, Charina. This was easy enough for
a shape-changer, and the result was quite effective. I
believe Kevin had even fallen in love with her. "
Alaire closed his mouth and nodded wisely. "What
happened to the real niece?" he asked. This was not
part of the bedtime story, which usually never got past
the tale of Amber and Aidan.
Naitachal sighed. "What you might expect. The
Count, we later discovered, murdered her to get her
out of the way. She apparently knew something was
afoot." He shook his head. "Poor little thing. They
killed her before she could enjoy her life."
He brooded on that for a moment, and Alaire gen-
tly prodded him back onto the story. "So Kevin came
to copy the manuscript, and Carlotta found out what
he was doing. Why didn't she simply take the manu-
script?"
Naitachal chuckled. "Because the manuscript hid
itself from anyone except Aidan or his deputy. When
the manuscript disappeared, Carlotta and Volmar
staged the disappearance of the fake 'niece' out of des-
peration. They blamed both Dark and White Elves for
the 'kidnapping,' and that was how I became involved.
I was visiting Volmar's court during some rather aim-
less travels. Count Volmar appointed Kevin to lead a
search party. To clear my people's name I volunteered
to help."
So that's where you came in, Alaire thought. This is
getting interesting.
Naitachal squinted up at the sun for a moment.
"None of us knew the book in question had a hidden
spell in it, a spell that could 'unmake' Carlotta. Which