"Doranna Durgin - Wolverine's Daughter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Durgin Doranna)

"Shut up!" she hissed. Assured that she no longer needed her own clawhold on the rock, she twisted,
adding her other hand to her grip on his wrist. Her fingers sunk into his flesh. Mungo's face was a rictus
of pain and fear as his elbow scraped up the outthrust curve of granite, and then Kelyn jerked back
again, pulled to solid ground. A pair of hands left her ankle and settled instead on Mungo's arm, reaching
for his shoulders, and finally, in one last concerted heave by all involved, pulled him up with a firm grip
under his arms.

They sprawled together in a sweating, fear-reeking pile of bodies, ringed by the few who had kept their
feet and were demanding to know what had happened. Kelyn glared meaningfully at Mungo and Iden.

"We were justтАФ" Iden started, but the sudden, out-of-place guffaws of one of the others cut him short.

"Iknow," Gwawl said, pointing at Mungo in evident glee. "You took all that talk at the fire too seriously!"

"You tried to sneak up andkiss her!" Huon said, catching on. "I bet you were gonna try toтАФ"

"Shut up!" Mungo growled, but Kelyn already knew. She shoved Mungo's leg off her own with evident
disdain.

"Don't be like that," Mungo said. "You should be glad we even think of you that way, consideringтАФ"

Little Frykla snapped, "Mungo!"

But Kelyn knew what he'd been going to say, too. Everyone knew. She was a parody of her mother's
beauty, her legs and arms unceasingly gangly and perfectly matching her reputation for clumsiness. Her
features themselves were lovely enoughтАФstriking green eyes, so unlike the normal Keturan hazel, and
only echoed in her Reman mother's own green-tinted grey. They were tilted up on the outside edges and
would have been breathtakingтАФif only they weren't set so wide. Her mouth was her mother's as well,
shapely and . . . and too wide for her face. And her nose sat in the middle, a strong nose that must have
come from her father, for it was nothing like Lytha's.

The overall effect was as if someone had set perfectly nice features upon a face that was slightly too
small for them, and then pulled the skin tightly back. Kelyn had seen enough pond reflections to know,
and seldom bothered with the polished bronze mirror her mother owned. Combined with her tall
gawkiness, it hardly made her the sort of woman men longed for.

As if it mattered. After all, which was more importantтАФa comely face or the ability to survive in this
world?

She shoved Mungo's leg again, hardly necessary since it wasn't even touching her anymore, and
disentangled her staff from where the group had communally fallen on it. "Whatever you were after, I
trust you've learned you'd betterask first." She didn't wait for a response, but got stiffly to her feet, doing
her best to reinforce her point with body language. Then the staff stubbed against someone's hip as she
was bringing it upright, came free with a jerk, and clunked her on the side of the face.

She turned so fierce a glare on them all that they didn't dare laugh. "Move off," she demanded. "I'm
going back to sleep."

They did as they were told, muttering amongst themselves, a combination of muffled amusement and