"Kate Elliott - Jaran 4 - The Law of Becoming" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elliott Kate)

now, at last, to dismiss him. "Bring more sweetcakes."

For an instant, Vasha's gaze met that of Nadine Orzhekov. She had a sharp, penetrating eye, but
she did not appear to scorn him. Of course, she did not yet know the truth. He hurried away.

When he returned, Mother Kireyevsky did an unheard of thing. "Vasha, set those down. Then you
will sit beside me."

Sit beside her! Stunned by this sign of favor, he obeyed, sinking down beside her and folding his
hands in his lap. He risked another look at their visitor. Bakhtiian's niece! She looked no different,
really, than other women, except that she dressed and walked like a soldier. Her black hair was
caught back in single braid and her cheek bore a recent scar. Again her gaze met his, measuring, keen,
but this time he forgot himself enough that he did not drop his away immediately.

"Vasha!" scolded Mother Kireyevsky. He stared at his hands. Then the horrible truth came out.
"Inessa Kireyevsky was not married when her mother died, although by this time she had an
eight-year-old child. She had no husband. She never married."

"But then howтАФ" Nadine Orzhekov broke off, looking at him. How could she then have a child?

Shame writhed through Vasha. He felt it stain his cheeks, a visible mark of the disgrace that his
mother had brought on her tribe.

"Luckily," Mother Kireyevsky was saying, "she died a year after her mother died."

"Leaving her son," said Orzhekov. Vasha could not bear to look up now, knowing he would see
contempt, not curiosity, in her gaze.

"Leaving a boy with no father, dead or otherwise, and no closer relatives than distant cousins. That
line was not strong." Mother Kireyevsky's voice rang like hammer blows, unrelenting. Gods, why was
she humiliating him like this? What was the point? Hadn't he been brought low enough already, that
she had to make sure that Bakhtiian's niece knew of the scandal as well? Would she never be
satisfied?

Like a spark, like his thoughts had triggered the words in her, Nadine Orzhekov spoke. "Why are
you telling me this?" Then, secure as he could never be, she carelessly took another sweetcake.

Vasha felt more than heard Mother Kireyevsky take in a breath for the momentous
pronouncement. "Inessa claimed to know who the child's father was. It was her last wish, as she lay
dying of a fever, that the boy be sent to his father. If it is at all possible. .. ." His hearing hazed over as
a roar of fear and hope descended on him, claiming him. Mother Kireyevsky continued to speak, but
he did not hear her words, not until she pounded the final strokes: "She claimed that his father was
Ilyakoria Orzhekov."

Into the silence, Nadine Orzhekov's reply was so light-hearted, caught on a laugh, that it seemed
false. "My uncle, Bakhtiian."

Vasha hunkered down. He knew what must come next. Now Nadine Orzhekov would repudiate
the connection. She would laugh.