"Bujold, Lois McMaster - Chalion 3 - The Hallowed Hunt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bujold Lois McMaster)

That sounded so like one of Lord HetwarТs favorite aphorisms that Ingrey jerked. УDid she have any?Ф
УShe said she sought me outЧat a moment of great inconvenience, perhaps peril, for herself, mind youЧfor two reasons. Because sheТd heard the newsЧand for the dreams, of course. Only Hallana could make that second reason sound like an afterthought. That I have had strange and dark dreams, nightmares almost as disturbing as my waking life, I take to be the result of fear, weariness, andЕand BolesoТs gift.Ф She moistened her lips. УBut why should Hallana dream of me or my troubles? She is a Temple woman to the bone, and no renegade, for all that she clears her own path. Did she speak to you of her dreams?Ф
УNo. But I didnТt think to ask.Ф
УShe asked many questions, learned I-know-not-what from watching us, but she gave me no direction, one way or another. That, too, is a silence. All she gave me, in the end, was the letter.Ф She touched her left breast, fingering the fine-embroidered fabric of her riding jacket. Ingrey fancied he heard a faint rustle of paper beneath the cloth, from some inner pocket. УShe seemed to expect me to deliver it. As the only thing resembling guidance that she gave me, I am loath to give it up for some chancy flight into exile withЕwith a man IТd not met till four days ago.Ф She was silent a moment. УEspecially not as your little sister, five gods spare me!Ф
He did not understand her offense, but he certainly could not mistake her refusal. He said heavily, УWeТll continue on toward Easthome tomorrow, then, with BolesoТs coffin.Ф Which would give him perhaps three more days to come up with some better argument or plan, less the time he spent sleeping. If any.
He escorted her back through the lowering twilight to her inn, and into the hands of her warden once more. The countrywomanТs gaze upon him was now outright suspicious, though she made no comment at all. Starting back down the street, Ingrey began to wonder if he should be attending to IjadaТs silences. There were certainly enough of them.
As he neared his inn, a dark shape thrust itself off the wall where it had been leaning. IngreyТs hand strayed to his sword hilt, but relaxed again as the figure moved into the yellow light of the lantern above the door, and he recognized Gesca. The lieutenant gave him a nod.
УWalk with me, Ingrey. I would have a word in private.Ф
IngreyТs brows twitched up, but he fell in willingly enough. They matched steps on the cobblestones, took a turn about the next square up the street near the city gates, and settled on a wooden bench by the covered well in the squareТs center. A servant turned away and stumped off past them with a pair of dripping buckets hung from a yoke over his shoulders. Beyond, in the street, a couple hurried home, the woman holding a lantern, the man with a boy atop his shoulder, who curled his small hands in the manТs hair; the man laughed protest at the grip. The manТs eyes shifted to assay the two loitering swordsmen, took reassurance from their repose, and returned to his woman. Their footsteps faded.
Silence fell, and lengthened. GescaТs fingers drummed uneasily on his thigh. УIs there a problem in the troop?Ф Ingrey prompted at last. УOr with BolesoТs men?Ф
УHuh.Ф Gesca sat up and straightened his shoulders. УMaybe youТll tell me.Ф He hesitated again, sucked on his lower lip, then said abruptly, УAre you falling in love with that accursed girl, Ingrey?Ф
Ingrey stiffened. УWhy should you think that?Ф
Sarcasm edged GescaТs voice. УWell, let me see. What could possibly have suggested this thing? Could it be the way you speak to her apart at every chance? Or could it be the way you plunged like a madman into a raging torrent to save her? Could it have been how you were surprised, half-dressed, trying to sneak into her bedchamber at midnight? The pale and starveling look on your face, when you think no one is watching you, when you look at her? The way the lovesick circles darken daily under your eyes? I admit, only Ingrey kin Wolfcliff would ignite with lust for a woman who bludgeons her lovers to death, but for you, thatТs not a deterrent, itТs a lure!Ф Gesca snorted.
УYou have,Ф said Ingrey coldly, Уentirely the wrong impression of the matter.Ф Dismay verging on horror gripped him at the blatant plausibility of GescaТs interpretation, succeeded by the arrested thought that it might not be so bad a public cloak for the stranger and more deadly reality of the geas, at that. Followed in turn by an even more frightening suspicion that Gesca might not be misled at allЕNo. No. УAnyway, it was only one lover.Ф
УWhat?Ф
УThat she bludgeoned.Ф He added after a moment, УI admit, whatever her game bag lacks in numbers, it makes up in weight.Ф And after another moment, УIn any case, she isnТt attracted to me, so your fears are moot.Ф
УNot true. She thinks you a very comely man, though glum.Ф
УHow do you know that?Ф Ingrey rapidly reviewed the past daysЧwhen had Gesca ever spoken with the prisoner?
УShe discussed you with her warden, or perhaps it was the other way around. Quite frank and outspoken, that one, when you get her going. The MotherТs work does that to some women.Ф
УThe warden doesnТt speak so to me.Ф
УThatТs because you terrify her. I donТt. At least by contrast. Very useful, from my point of view. But have you ever overheard two women discussing men? Men are crude liars, comparing their drabs, but womenЧIТd rather have a MotherТs anatomist dissect me alive than to listen to the things the ladies say about us when they think they are alone.Ф Gesca shuddered.
Ingrey managed not to blurt, What else did Ijada say of me? His prisoner, it occurred to him, would have had to fill the hours with something, when locked up with that countrywoman; and inconsequential chatter might conceal dire secrets better than silence itself. So. He ventured a blander, УIs there anything else I should know?Ф
УOh, ayeФЧGesca let his voice lilt upward into a feminine falsettoЧУthe lady thinks your smile is devastating.Ф
GescaТs smile, Ingrey thought, was an altogether evil smirk. Evidently, however, the shadows were not deep enough yet to hide IngreyТs return glare, or possibly it burned through the darkness with its own heat, for Gesca sobered, raising a warding hand.
УIngrey, look.Ф GescaТs voice grew serious. УI donТt want to see you do something stupid. You have a future in HetwarТs house, far beyond mine, and itТs not just your kinship that gives you the leg up. For me, maybe IТll make guard captain someday. YouТre a lettered man in two tongues, Hetwar talks to you as an equalЧnot just in blood, but in witsЧand you give him back as good as you get. Listening to the two of you makes my head spin round, sometimes. I donТt even want to walk the paths you seem destined to tread. Heights make me dizzy, and I like my head where it is. But most of allЕI donТt ever want to be the officer whoТs sent to arrest you.Ф
Ingrey unset his teeth. УFair enough.Ф
УRight.Ф
УWe ride again tomorrow.Ф
УGood.Ф
УIf I can get my boots on.Ф
УIТll come help you.Ф
And I will dismiss that prying, spying, gossiping warden back to Reedmere, and replace her with another. Or with none. Feminine chatter was annoying enough, but what if her gossip dared extend to the curious events she had witnessed swirling around HallanaТs visits?
What if it already has?
They both rose and started back down the ill-lit street. Ingrey paused at the door of his inn; Gesca, with a half salute of farewell, walked onward. Ingrey studied his back.
So. Gesca watches me. But why? IdleЧor carnalЧcuriosity? Self-interest, as he claimed? Worried comradeship? Strange gossip? It occurred to Ingrey that for all GescaТs modest claims to be an unlettered man, he was perfectly capable of penning a brief report. The sentences might be simple, the word choices infelicitous, the spelling erratic, but he could get his observations down in a logical enough order for all practical purposes.
And if Hetwar had both menТs letters before him, which would be very like HetwarЕIngreyТs silences would shout.
Ingrey swallowed a curse and went indoors.
а
DURING THE NEXT DAYТS RIDE, THE AUTUMN COUNTRYSIDE PASSED in a blur of inattention for Ingrey. But he was all too keenly aware of Ijada, riding alongside the wagon near her new warden, a daunted young dedicat from the DaughterТs Order in Red Dike, plucked by the local divine from her teaching duties for this unaccustomed task.
Once, when they first mounted up, Ijada smiled at him. Ingrey almost smiled back, till GescaТs mockery echoed in his mind, freezing his face in an uncomfortable distorted grimace that made her eyes widen, then slide away. He spurred ahead before his mouth muscles went into spasms.
He wondered what madness had seized his tongue last night in the temple. Of course Ijada must refuse to fly, even from the gallows, with a man who had tried to kill her, what, three times? Five? What sort of choice was that to lay before the girl? Think, man. Might he offer her another escort? Where could one be found, that he could trust? A vision of kidnapping her and riding off with her across his saddlebow led to even less useful imaginings. He knew the speed and ferocity his wolf could lend to him; what might her leopard do for her, woman though she most undoubtedly was? She had already slain Boleso, a bigger man than Ingrey, though admittedly, she had taken the prince by surprise. SheТd even surprised herself, or so Ingrey read her. If she chose to resist himЧif he thenЕand then sheЕThe curiously absorbing reverie was shattered by his memory of GescaТs other jibeЧFor you, itТs a lure!Чand his scowl deepened.
And I am most certainly not falling in love with her, either, burn your eyes, Gesca.
Nor in lust.
Much.
Nothing that he could not fully control, anyway.
He spent the rest of the day not smiling at her, nor looking at her, nor riding near her, nor speaking to her, nor betraying any awareness of her existence in any way whatsoever. The effect seemed contagious; Gesca trotted near him to make some remark, took one look at his face, swallowed his words, and prudently retreated to the opposite end of the column. No one else approached him either, and BolesoТs retainers shrank from his glower. At his few commands, men hastened to obey.
Their start had been late and their progress slow, seldom pushing the horses faster than a walk. As a result they arrived that afternoon at a smaller town than any prior stop, though still more miles nearer Easthome than Ingrey would have liked. Ingrey ruthlessly sent BolesoТs men to bed down with their late master in MiddletownТs rustic temple, and seized the sole inn for himself, his prisoner and her duenna, and HetwarТs troop. He stalked the townТs perimeter in the twilight, all too brief a task. There could be no excursion this night to that crowded temple for undervoiced argument. Tomorrow night, he must select a larger town for their halt, Ingrey determined. And the next nightЕthere werenТt enough next nights.
Since Gesca chose a bedroll in the taproom rather than to share IngreyТs chamber, Ingrey took his still-recovering hurts to bed early, and alone.
а
WITH A SHORT LEG PLANNED FOR THEIR JOURNEY, INGREY DID not drive his men to an early start the next morning, either. He was still desultorily drinking bitter herb tea and nibbling bread in the little innТs taproom when Lady Ijada descended with her new warden. He managed to return her nod without undue distortion of his features.