"Rawn, Melanie - Dragon Star 2 - Dragon Token" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

Instead, he received theirs. Jihan took charge of removing his armor while Rislyn hurried to get his bath ready and Meiglan unpacked what little they had been able to bring with them. It was a pleasant domestic scene, one that reminded him of the days they used to spend at the little cottage he'd built with his own hands at Dragon's Rest. That cottage was cinders now, just like Stronghold.

"Papa?" Jihan was tugging at a buckle on his leather-and-steel breastplate. "It's stuck."

"I'll do it, sweet." His squires had punched a new hole in the strap back at Stronghold to make the fit more snug around his waist, and the hide was still stiff. "Give it all to Kierun and Dannar to clean," he said, shrugging out

of the armor. "I won't be needing it for a while, so there's no rush."

"Tell them to replace the chest straps, Jihan," Meiglan said. "You complained that they were too tight, my lord."

Stripping off tunic and undershirt, he rubbed the place high on his ribs where the buckle had dug into bone. "Thanks for reminding me, Meggie."

Rislyn came out of the bathroomЧevery chamber reserved for highborn guests had one, an elegant and welcome luxury that had driven Sorin's architects half mad in the planningЧand reported the tub filled and waiting. Pol stood, hitched his pants higher around his hips, and stretched.

"Hurry, Papa," Rislyn urged. "Before it gets cold."

He eyed his daughters. They wore torn trousers, filthy shirts, and scuffed boots, their hair was tangled and dusty, and they were thoroughly adorable. He picked up one in each arm and carted them into the bathroom.

"Papa! Put me down!" Jihan demanded.

" 'Papa'? Last I heard, I was father to a pair of princesses. What I see right now are a brace of dust storms with half the Desert in their clothes." He tickled and they squirmed. "See? I shake them, and sand falls out!"

Rislyn giggled as he held her over the tub. "You're as dirty as we are! And you smell awful!"

"I suppose I do, at that. But I know for a fact that underneath the stink and dirt is a prince. I'm not so sure about you two. What do you think, my lady? Are there princesses here somewhere?"

Meiglan laughed and took Rislyn from his grasp. "Give us a little while in here, my lord, and I might be able to find out. But whatever they are, they'll turn your bath into a mud puddle."

"Just keep scrubbing until you get down to something that looks like my daughters," he advised. "I'll go beg a basin and washcloth from RualaЧ"

"A dunk in a horse trough would be better," Jihan observed, then yelped as he turned her upside down over his shoulder. "Papa!"

"Insolent monster! Apologize to your prince at once!"

"Won't!"

"Meggie, there's no need to wash this one. It's a princess, all right. And arrogant with it, too. I think that horse trough is an excellent idea."

"Papa! You wouldn't!"

"Oh, wouldn't I?"

But she attacked the vulnerable spot just below his last rib, and he had to set her down before he laughed so hard he dropped her.

Leaving his ladies in possession of the bathroom, he returned to the main chamber. The Desert beckonedЧ he supposed it always would, especially now that it was his. Vast, beautiful, and merciless, it had betrayed Rohan just as Maarken had said. Sunrunners, soldiers, and sand had all failed him.

Pol sat down in a window embrasure, one foot tucked under him. Beyond the Desert was the sea, and beyond that . . . who knew? No one had ever gone lookingЧor at least no one had come back. He'd wondered about that when he was younger, when he and Meath had ridden the northern coast of Dorval where the Sunrise Water stretched into infinity. From thereЧfrom anyplaceЧa Sunrunner might ride the light all the way around the world, or so it had seemed to Pol.

"Would you, indeed?" Meath asked, amused. "And how would you get back?"