"Debra Doyle & James MacDonald - Mageworlds 04 - The Gathering Flame" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doyle Debra)

Errec nodded. "There's a cafe"," he replied in the same tongue. "The Blue Sun. I'll start there and
meet you afterward."
 The Blue Sun wasn't far-a short walk along the noisy, garish Strip. When he got there, the main
dining room was crowded with newly paid free-spacers. Some of them had come to get a cheap meal
and a stiff drink before embarking on their evening's carousal. Others-the ones that Errec was interested
in-were there to buy or sell things of value, information included.
He slid into the first open booth he came to, inspected the menu pad, and signaled for plain bread
and cheese and a mug of the local beer. He was in the mood for something quite a bit stronger, but it
looked like he'd be holding down this booth for quite a while.
Three hours, he thought, and laughed again, softly, to himself. If the lady was pretty and skillful,
Jos sometimes took all night.

Jos Metadi, more amused than not by developments so far, nodded at Ser Hafrey and the
bodyguard and followed the young woman into the private room. The door-an automatic one this time,
unlike the old-style wooden panels that adorned the more public areas of the Double Moon- slid closed
behind him.
The room contained a small table and two chairs, in the same curved and ornamented style as the
furniture of the outer chamber. Heavy brocade curtains obscured the dim alcove in one corner. His
interest, already piqued by the lady's mask and her brace of escorts, quickened even further.
Whatever she's got in mind, he thought, it's not the usual.
The lady sat down in one of the chairs, and waved a hand at the other. "Captain Metadi," she
said. "Pray be seated, and let us talk."
For a fraction of a second, Jos thought about accepting her invitation at face value. Then he
decided to push things a little instead. The lady wanted something from him; he might as well let her know
that the price wouldn't be low. He moved over to the table and stood behind the empty chair, resting his
hands on the carved arch of its high wooden back.
"First things first. The mask has to come off. I don't make deals with anyone I can't see."
Her mouth curved in a faint smile under the black velvet. "Fair enough, I suppose."
She reached up and undid the tabs holding the mask in place. The black velvet slid away; she
caught the mask as it fell, and placed it on the table in front of her.
'There," she said. "Shall we proceed?"
Jos looked at her. She was younger than he'd expected, considering the weight of authority in her
voice, with fair, unblemished skin. The contours of her face were clean and pure, saved from arrogance
only by the warmth of her mouth and the vivid blue of her eyes. Her brows and lashes were darker than
her hair, ash blond rather than ice. His glance continued appraisingly downward. She was pleasingly
buxom, and he found himself imagining-he wrenched himself back to the present, hoping that the track of
his eyes had gone unremarked.
"I'm afraid that you have the advantage of me," he said, pulling out the chair and seating himself as
he spoke. "You know me-by name and reputation, at least. But I don't know you."
The lady regarded him for a moment before seeming to come to a decision. "Very well. I am
Perada Rosselin, Do-mina of Entibor, of the Far Colonies, and of the Space Between."
Entibor? thought Jos, keeping his expression unchanged by an effort of will. Since becoming a
privateer, he had needed to learn who ruled which planets, and something of their alliances. The whole
tangled nest of them made his head ache sometimes. Who's ... yes, Veratina. Whoever this is, though,
she sure as hell isn't Veratina. But if the old woman's dead . . . I thought that Veratina's heir was a
schoolgirl on Galcen.
He looked again at the lady across from him, and revised his estimate of her age downward by
several years. At her majority, clearly, or she wouldn't be claiming the title ... but closer to girl than
woman. Not yet twenty, Galcenian, that much was sure.
Don't let her age fool you, hotshot. This girl's been training to sign death warrants since the first