"Bard's Tale 04 - The Chaos Gate - Josepha Sherman UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bard's Tale)

there who didn't think this upstart young count, King's friend that he was, would make a valuable political ally. "I understand the whole thing, believe me. It's just..."
"He's scared!" Tich'ki jibed from overhead. "Poor little boy doesn't know what to do. Wouldn't even know what to do if a woman was plopped down in his bed!"
To his disgust, Kevin felt his face reddening. At nineteen he was hardly the innocent he'd once been, but he had yet to learn how to keep his cursedly fair skin from betraying him. "I am not scared. I'm merelyЧ"
"Terrified!"
"No! I only meant thatЧ"
"I'm right, he wouldn't know what to do! Woman had better bring a deck of cards to keep her amusedЧ"
"Enough, Tich'ki!" Kevin snapped, and heard Lydia chuckle. Furious at himself for getting so flustered, Kevin snatched up the miniature the bewildered messenger was offering. Like all the others, the small portrait was far too stylized to show the young count much: the usual perfectly oval face, the usual perfectly groomed hair, dark and wavy in this case. Kevin was about to hand the miniature back with the blandly polite refusal he'd perfected during the last deluge of miniatures, but to his surprise found himself glancing down at it again. Funny, it really didn't tell him much, but there was something hinted at in the set of those deep blue eyes thatЧ
"You don't have to memorize it," Lydia teased. "No matter how hard you stare, it isn't going to move."
"Naw, it's not that!" Tich'ki sneered. "He's too scared to think, that's all. Doesn't know which end is which!"
"I said enough, Tich'ki!" Kevin snapped, glaring up, staring back down at the miniature, praying to stop blushing. There really was something intriguing about the set of those blue eyes, but he could hardly change
his life because of a stylized portrait. He'd give it back andЧ
But just then Tich'ki drew in her breath for yet another taunt, and Kevin, to his shock, heard himself blurt out, "All right, the Lady Gwenlyn it shall be!"
Oh curse it all to Darkness, what made me say that? What have I gotten myself into now?
Too late to back down. Everyone around him was cheering, and Lydia was slapping him joyfully on his back. The messenger, face wreathed in smiles, bowed and bowed again.
"My master, Count Trahern, will be truly delighted, my Lord Count. As soon as I may, I shall return to him with the joyous news. Oh, and a portrait of you, of course, Count Kevin."
"Of... course."
But Kevin couldn't help repeating in silent panic, What have I gotten myself into now?
As the days passed, Kevin found himself growing increasingly nervous. What had he done, what? A betrothal was as good as a marriage, everyone knew that, and by making that stupid declaration he'd as good as betrothed himself toЧto whom? The Lady Gwenlyn? All he knew about her was that she was Count Trahern's daughter, and he didn't even know anything much about Count Trahern!
Meanwhile, of course, castle life had to go on. He had to continue being Count Kevin. Even if it meant being faced with the most awkward, embarrassing tasks. Like this one:
"Uh ... Naitachal."
"I'm glad to see you remember my name," the Dark Elf said drily. He sat sprawled at his ease, looking
impossibly graceful even so, making Kevin feel very clumsy by comparison.
"Do you . . . have you any idea why I ... uh ... asked you to meet me here?"
Naitachal glanced about the private little audience room, with its one window overlooking empty space and the bare stone walls that offered no hiding space for spies. "Offhand, I'd say you wanted to discuss something in private." Irony dripped from the elegant voice.
"Uh . . . yes. YouЧyou've been living among humans for four years now."
"So I have. Bracklin has proved most. . . interesting-"
"Interesting" was hardly the word Kevin would have
applied to the quiet little backwater village that was the home of Master Bard Aidan. But that very peace-fulness must have been wonderfully soothing to a Dark Elf trying desperately to turn from the necromancy that had been all he'd known for untold years to the magic of music instead. "IЧI'm sure it has," Kevin said belatedly. "But I didn't mean to ask you about that. Your people don't believe inЧin love, do they?"
The bright blue eyes turned suddenly hard and cold. "You know that," Naitachal said flatly. "No Nithathil, no Dark Elf, trusts another. No one of us dares. We come together only for mutual profit or procreation."
Kevin winced. "Then human ways must still seem very strange to you."
The coldness faded. "After only these four years or so of living freely among your kind? Oh, yes. Kevin, what is all this about? You didn't ask me here for lessons on Nithathili life." Naitachal paused, studying the young count thoughtfully, and a slow smile formed on his lips. "So-o. Judging from the embarrassed looks you're giving me, this has to do with those happy, silly
games human men and women love to play together: the not-quite-true flattery, the not-quite-true lust."
"You've been playing those games, too."
"Flirting, you mean? That is the term? Why, yes." Naitachal's teeth flashed in a quick grin. "The good folk of Bracklin don't go in for such silliness. But the women here seem to enjoy it. And frankly, so do I. It's such a novelty to try such a frivolous thing."
"Ah well, yes, but. . . it's not a matter of theЧthe games themselves, butЧ"
"But of whom I play them with? Yes? I thought that didn't matter with such frivolities."
"Well, noЧyesЧ" Kevin floundered to a stop, all at once aware of the amusement flickering in the elven eyes. "Naitachal..."
"I know, I know. Stay away from the married ladies. I'd already come to that conclusion after some idiot man tried to challenge me for smiling at his fat little hen of a wife. And it's not fair of me to tease you, not when you're being so earnest. Not," the elven Bard added delicately, "when you have your own potential romance to concern you."
"Oh. That."
"The thought does frighten you, doesn't it?"
"Gods, yes!" The words burst out before Kevin could stop them. "IЧI know I'll have to wed sometime; that's part of the duties of a count, after all. B-but I never thought, not really, that I'd wind up tying my life to a total stranger!"
"You're about to suggest something. What is it?"
Kevin licked suddenly dry lips. Leaning forward in his chair, he said, "I was playing with the idea ofЧof going off, secretly, that is, to Count Trahern's castle, so I can meet the Lady Gwenlyn for myself." He sat nervously back, watching Naitachal intently, half hoping
the Dark Elf would talk him out of it. "So. What do you think of that?"
To his shock, he saw Naitachal grin. "I like it. A most excellent suggestion."
"WhatЧ"
"What better way for you to get to know your lady than to appear on her very doorstep after a weary journey to meet her? What young woman could refuse you after that? Why, it s the very essence of romance!"
Romance, Kevin thought drily. He should have known better. Naitachal, of course, could never have known romance, not with his harsh background, but now that he'd discovered the joys of flirtation, his quicksilver elf mind must be full of fancies worthy of any lovesick minstrel.
"Don't you think," Kevin began warily, "that maybe we should think this over? It might be dangerous toЧ"
Naitachal waved that off impatiently. "What danger could we possibly run into on a short trip through civilized lands?"