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

and kept the details to themselves. Alaire knew there
was some kind of scandal the royal family wanted to
keep hushed up, but he didn't know the details.
Perhaps Naitachal knows.
"I feel more comfortable with the sword now, Mas-
ter Naitachal," Alaire ventured. "It's becoming a part
of me, as you said it would, I'm sorry I came to you
with such holes in my education. My brother Grant
promised me training, but he became so involved with
his own he must have forgotten."
Naitachal ignored him. Alaire knew from experi-
ence, however, that he wasn't missing anything.
Alaire scratched his head a little; his hair was
sweat-damp and his scalp itched. "Still, I never expected
weapons training when Father sent me here. Is this the
kind of fighting you used when you defeated Carlotta?"
At the mention of the evil princess, Naitachal
turned slowly. The look he gave Alaire turned the boy's
spine to ice. His skin crawled uncomfortably, as if it
were trying to slither off his body. Gods, I hope that
wasn't the wrong thing to say, he thought. He could
kill me with one look, if he dared.
"Who said we defeated Carlotta?" Naitachal replied
casually.
The words stunned Alaire. What is he trying to say
this time? "Are you speaking in riddles to confuse
me?" Alaire asked, finally. "Or are you just posing
questions to make me think?"
Naitachal replaced the ladle and dropped the
bucket back into the well, then gave Alaire an
appraising look. "They never told you the entire story,
did they?"
Alaire perked up at the prospect of hearing some
secrets from his family's past. They never went into
much detail when I was around; all I ever got was the
bedtime story, with the moral "be good, or Carlotta
will carry you off."
Sometimes when he walked into his father's study,
and his mother and Grant and Drake were talking, he
would overhear something about Carlotta. As soon as
they saw him, everyone got really quiet.
He hadn't paid as much attention to his own fam-
ily's past as he might have. There was all the scope of
history to learn, a vast mine to delve in for gems that
could become songs. It would have seemed presump-
tuous to use his family as a basis for balladry. Still, the
mysterious story of Carlotta occasionally nagged at
him. Even if he was not likely to become king, he still
wondered what had happened back then, and why
they were keeping it from him.