"Kate Elliott - Jaran 2 - An Earthly Crown" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elliott Kate)

what a broken heart And damned spirit I ascend this seat. ..."
Diana sighed. Hal always overplayed this part, doubtless as revenge against his
parents. But it didn't matter. Gwyn played Tamburlaine so very finely that she never
tired of watching him. She leaned her arms along the wood railing that set off the
back row of seats from the balcony aisle and watched as Zenocrate's transparent
hearse was rolled in. Tamburlaine's final speech: she let herself fall into it.
"Now eyes, enjoy thy latest benefit. . . . For Tamburlaine, the Scourge of God
must die." He died. Tears wet Diana's cheeks. Another set of arms slid onto the railing
and, startled, she glanced to that side.
The man standing there smiled at her. He looked familiar and, in any case, she
recognized the kind of smile he was giving her. Men enough, and a few women, came
to the Green Room to court a pretty, golden-haired ingenue.
Hal said Amyras's final lines. The play ended. The audience rose, applauding
enthusiastically, as the players came forward to make their bows.
 "Shouldn't you be up there?" asked the man casually.
"You're Marco Burckhardt!" exclaimed Diana. "I thought you looked familiar.''
"Wit as well as beauty." Marco placed his right hand over his heart and bowed to
her. "I hope my reputation has not preceded my name."
Diana laughed. " 'Come, Sir, you're our envoyтАФlead the way, and we'll precede.'
And it's appropriate, too, you know. You've been on Rhui. You're coming with us,
aren't you?"
"With Charles," he agreed. He looked out over the house, over to one of the
boxes where a sandy-haired man of middle height stood applauding with his
companions and the rest of the audience. As if he were just any other playgoer.
Which, of course, he emphatically was not.
Marco swung his gaze back to Diana, and he smiled, deliberately, invitingly.
"But now that I have met you, golden fair, I need no other inducement to travel so
far.''
Diana felt a little breathless. In his own way, Marco
Burckhardt was a legend. "Is it true that you've explored most of the planet?
Rhui, that is. All alone, and without any aids whatsoever? Not even a palm slate or a
fletchette rifle or any modern weaponry? And by only the primitive transportation
they have on planet? That you've almost been killed?"
Marco chuckled. "I do carry an emergency transmitter, but I've never used it. And
this scarтАФ" He took her hand and lifted it to touch, like a caress, the pale line that
wrapped halfway around his neck. "You have soft skin," he murmured.
Diana traced the smooth line of the scar, the sun-roughened skin on either side,
and then lowered her hand back to the railing. "Is that the only one?" she asked, a
little disappointed. Beyond, on the stage, Gwyn and AnahitaтАФTamburlaine and
ZenocrateтАФcame forward to take their final bows. A few in the audience were
already filtering out of their seats. Charles Soerensen and his companions had not
moved, which surprised her, since most VIPs left immediately and by a side entrance
otherwise reserved for cast and crew.
"Not the only one," said Marco, "but I can't show you the others in such a public
place."
Diana smiled. "I'm almost convinced, but not quite. Is that the closest you've ever
come to death?"
Marco looked away from her, not into the distance, precisely, but at the stage, at
Gwyn, in his armor and holding spear and sword, the Scythian shepherd turned
conqueror. "No. I could run faster than the people chasing me, that time. The time I