"Duncan, Dave - A Man Of His Word 02 - Faery Lands Forlorn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

Azak stepped past Inos and moved toward the door-head high, back rigid. Kade
came to Inos's side and took her hand in a gesture that held only caution and
sympathy. Those were not much use.
Rap! He was only a stableboy, yet he had been the only one to stay faithful.
Even when Inos had spurned him in the forest, he had not wavered in his
allegiance. He had endured the ordeal of the taiga for her sake, not once but
twice. Her only loyal subject! Monarchs dreamed of loyalty like that. For Rap,
Inos would brave even the fury of a sorceress.
She had just one arrow left in her quiver, and it might make things immeasurably
worse, because despite what Rasha said, men as well as women could meet ordeals
more terrible than a quick death.
"He knows a word of power!"
Rasha spun around, matronly dignity replacing nymph seduction instantly. "Who
does?"
"Doctor Sagorn!" Inos watched the sorceress stalking back toward her like a
hungry cat. "And Rap has one, too."
"So!" Rasha came very close, smiling dangerously. "So that was why you were
holding hands with a stableboy? I wondered why the smell didn't bother the royal
nose."
Queen Rasha herself reeked sickeningly of gardenia. Rap, Inos suddenly realized,
had smelled of laundry soap, not of horses as he usually did. Which was
irrelevant ...
"His talent doesn't work on people! Just on animals. He's a faun. "
Kade said, "Inos, dear!" in a warning tone.
Still somehow catlike, the sorceress smiled. "But words of power have side
effects. Even one word would naturally make a man more successful at lechery; he
would automatically collect any stray princesses around."
"That wasn't what-I've known Rap all my life! I'd trust him with-"
"More fool you!" Rasha sneered. "Don't ever trust a man, any man. Muscles, you
stay! I'm not done with you. " Her eyes had not wandered from Inos's face; she
had spoken to Azak without looking at him. "Men keep their brains between their
legs. Don't you know that yet, child?"
"Not Rap! "
"Yes, Rap. " She considered Inos slyly for a moment. "Maybe I will fetch him for
you! I could show you his real colors."
"Don't believe her!" Azak shouted from the door. "She can inflame any man to
madness!"
Rasha raised her eyes to glare at him. She did not seem to do anything more, but
the young giant screamed, clutched his belly, and fell writhing on the floor.
"Brute! " Rasha muttered, then went back to studying Inos. Azak was thrashing
and whimpering. Inos had heard tales of animals caught in traps trying to chew
off their own paws ... why was she thinking of such stories at a time like this?
Appalled as much by the sorceress's casual indifference as by the barbarity
itself, she fought in vain for words.
"No," the sultana said. "They're all after the same thing, and nothing else."
"Not Rap! "
Rasha seemed to grow taller, and her eyes redder. "You think so? What do you
know of life, Little Palace Flower?"
"Enough!" Inos shouted. "I was about to be married to a man I loved and I saw
him transformed into a monster!"