"C. J. Cherryh - Fever SeasonUC - Compilation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cherryh C J)

" 'Kay. I'll clean the damn stove."
"And the lamp."
"Slaver. And the lamp. Whatcha seem1 Mondragon "bout?"
"Dunno. Got a note from him at work yesterday. Just asked me to meet him at Moghi's, 'cause he was calling in favors and had something for me to do."
"Hey, c'n I come 'long'?" Denny never missed the opportunity to go to Moghi's or Hoh's if he could manage it. Unlike Raj, he loved crowds and noise.
7* Mercedes Lackey
Raj thought. "Don't see why not, he didn't say 'alone,' and he usually does if that's the way he wants it. Why?"
"Gotta keep ye safe from Jones, don't I?"
Raj blushed hotly. He'd had a brief crush on Jones; very brief. It hadn't lasted past her dumping him headfirst in the canal. He hadn't known she and Mondragon were pairmg it at the time. Denny stilt wasn't letting him live it down.
He hoped profoundly that Denny never found out about MarinaЧhe'd rather die than have Denny rib him about her. He much preferred to worship her quietly, from afarЧwithout having half the urchins Denny ran with knowing about it. He still didn't know too much about his idolЧthe only reason he even knew her name was because he'd overheard one of her companions using it.
Oh, MarinaЧ
Enough of daydreaming. "Get a move on, we're going to be late," he replied, while Denny chuckled evilly.
There had been plenty of gossip among the other clerks today, and because of some of it, Raj made a detour on the way homeЧto Kamat.
So here he was at Kamat's gatehouse, facing the ancient doorkeeper through its grate. He was glad that it was nearly dusk; glad his dark sweater and britches were so anonymous, glad beyond telling that the shortsighted doorkeeper of House Kamat couldn't see his face. It took all his courage to pretend to be a runner with a message to be left "for m'sera Marina." He moved off as fast as was prudent, eager'to get himself deep into shadows, once the folded and sealed paper was in the doorman's hands. His heart was pounding with combined anxiety, embarrassment, and excitement. MaybeЧ well, probablyЧMarina would get it, if only when the head of her household demanded to know "what this is all about"Ч
AndЧAncestors!Чthey'd want to know what it was about, alt right. Because it was a love-poem. Anonymous, of course, so Marina would be able to protest honestly that she had no idea where it had come from, and why. And Raj's identity was safe. He'd written and erased it twenty or thirty times
A PLAGUE ON YOUR HOUSES
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before it seemed right. And the only reason he'd found the courage to deliver it was because today he'd finally found out just who she was.
M'sera Marina of Kamat. The daughter of the house. Not above Rigel TakahashiЧprovided that the hostilities between Nev Hettek and Merovingen could be overlookedЧbut definitely above the tpuch of Raj Tai.
Raj had buried Rigel Takahashi quite thoroughly, and not even for the sweet eyes of Marina Kamat was he going to resurrect the name he'd been born to. But even if he couldn't touch, he could dreamЧand perversely, even if she were never to learn who her unknown admirer was, he wanted her to know how he felt. So he'd spent three hours struggling over that poem.
Just two weeks ago it was, he'd seen her. At Moghi's, with a couple of companions. Until then his daydreams had been confined to something just as impossible, but hardly romantic.
The College. Lord and Ancestors, what he wouldn't give to get in thereЧbut he had no money, and no sponsor, and the wroiig religious affiliation on top of it all. Not that he gave a fat damn about religion anymore, but in no way was he ever going to pass for Revenantist. He didn't know the creeds, the ceremonies, the doctrinesЧ
But he was young enough that sometimes, sometimes when the day had gone really well, it almost seemed possible. Because a long-buried dream had surfaced with this new life. Raj wanted to be a doctor; a medic, anyway.
The patrons of Mama's drug-shop had teased him about thatЧbut right along with the teasing they'd asked his advice, and taken it too. That perfect memory again; he remembered symptoms, treatments, alternatives, ailergiesЧhe'd helped old May out in the swamp, later, with her herbs and her 'weeds,' dispensing what passed for medicine among the swampies and the crazies.
Of course, since seeing Marina for the first time, she'd crowded out that particular daydream more often than not.
He wondered if he'd see her tonight at Moghi's.
His feet were chilled as he padded along the damp wooden
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walkways. He couldn't get used to shoes after five years without them in the swamp, so he generally went as bare of foot as a canaler. The temperature was dropping; fog was coming up off the water. The lines of the railings near him blurred: farther on, they were reduced to silhouettes. Farther than that, across the canal, there was nothing to see but vague, hulking shapes. Without the clatter of boot-soles or clogs, he moved as silently in the fog as a spiritЧsilent out of habit. If the walkway-gangs (or the swamp-gangs) didn't hear you, they couldn't hassle you. Breathing the fog was like breathing wet, smokey wool; it was tainted with any number of strange smells. It held them, fishy smell of canal, smell of rotting wood, woodsmoke, stink of nameless somethings poured into the dark, cold waters below him. He hardly noticed. His thoughts were elsewhereЧback with the inspiration for his poem.
Oh, MarinaЧ
She tended to show up at Moghi's pretty frequently. Of course Raj was under no illusions as to why. Tom Mondragon, naturallyЧhell, Tom even had Rat and Rif exchanging lustful jokes and comments about him. Raj wondered hopelessly if he'd ever haveЧwhatever it was that Tom had. Probably not.
His feet had taken him all unaware down the walkways and the long, black tunnel-path through Fife to his very own door, almost before he realized it. He started to use his key, but Denny had beaten him home, and must have heard the rattle in the lock.
" 'Bout time!" he caroled in Raj's face, pulling the door open with Raj standing there stupidly, key still held out. "Ye fall in th' canal?"
"They kept us late," Raj said, trying not to feel irritated that his daydream had been cut short. "There any supper? It was your turn."
"There will be. Got eggs, an' I promise not t' burn 'em." He returned to the side of the stove, cracked an egg into the pan, and began frying it with studious care as to its state. "They give me tomorrow off too, like youЧsomethin' about
A PlAGUE ON YOUR HOUSES 7╗
a Falkenaer shipЧye got anythin' ye wanta do? After chores, 1 mean."
"Not really," Raj replied absently, going straight over to the wall and trying to get a good look at himself in the little bit of cracked mirror hung over the sink. Denny noticed, and cocked a quizzical eye at him as he brought over a dented tin plate holding Raj's egg and a slice of bread.
"Somethin' doin1?"
"1 just don't see any reason to show up at Moghi's looking like a drowned cat," Raj replied waspishly, accepting the plate and beginning to eat.
"Huh." Denny took the hint and combed his hair with his fingers, then inhaled his own dinner.
"Hey, big brotherЧy'know somethin' funny?" Denny actually sounded thoughtful, and Raj swiveled to look at him with surprise. "Since ye started eatin' regular, yer gettin' t' look a lot like Mama. An' that ain't badЧshe may'a been bird-witted, but she was a looker."
Raj was touched by the implied compliment. "Not so funny," he returned, "1 gotta look like somebody. You know, the older you get, the more you look like Mahmud Lee. In the right light nobody'd ever have to guess who your daddy was."
Denny started preening at thatЧhe was just old enough to remember that Lee had been a fair match for Tom Mondragon at attracting the ladies.
Then Raj grinned wickedly and deflated him. "It's just too bad you inherited Mama's vacuums-brain too."
"Hey!"
"Now don't start something you can't finishЧ" Raj warned as his brother dropped his empty plate, seized a pillow and advanced on him.
Denny gave a disgusted snort, remembering how things had turned out only that morning, and threw the pillow back into its corner. "No fair."
"Life's like that," Raj replied. "So let's gel going, huh?"