"Jennifer Fallon - Demon Child 03 - Harshini" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fallon Jennifer)

and she had no reason to doubt him. Tarja loved her because the gods willed it. He had been given no
say in the matter, nor was he aware that the choice had not been his.

If Tarja ever learns of the geas, Xaphista will have no need to seduce him, R'shiel thought unhappily.
Tarja's wrath would be enough. She knew that, as surely as she knew nothing she could do, nothing she
could say would lessen his fury, should he ever discover what had been done to him.

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 Harshini



As dawn slowly lightened the sky over the camp, R'shiel abandoned her depressing line of thought. No
closer to finding a solution to the troubles that plagued her, she left the tent to find some breakfast and
clean up before her meeting with Denjon and the other captains.

"We have a problem," Denjon announced by way of greeting when she entered the mess tent. It had, by
default, become their meeting place over the past two weeks. Brak and Captain Dorak were already
there, sitting at one of the long tables nursing steaming mugs. The tables had been cleared from last
night's party and the tent was empty other than for Brak and the Defenders. Captain Linst was sitting at
the end of the table, the remains of his breakfast in front of him. None of the men rose as she entered.
She had finally cured them of that, at least.

"Only one problem? When did things improve?"

Denjon treated her to a weary smile. He was a tall, rangy man, who had been a classmate of Tarja's when
they were cadets. He had dark hair and the competent manner R'shiel associated with the Defenders. His
proficiency was a credit to Jenga rather than a positive reflection on the Sisters of the Blade who
commanded the Defenders.

"Perhaps I should re-phrase that. We have an urgent problem. The rest can wait an hour or two."

"Where's Damin?"

"Still enjoying his wedding night, I suppose," Dorak suggested with a grin.

"We can't wait for him," Denjon shrugged. "We need to decide what we're going to do with the Karien
prisoners. We've sat here far too long and the scouts have just brought news of another troop of Kariens
coming in from the north, no doubt looking for their Prince."

"We have to move out," Linst added. "We can't take the Karien prisoners with us and we can hardly
leave them here to announce what we're up to when the search party finds them."

The problem of what to do with the Karien knights who had accompanied Prince Cratyn on his quest to
find Adrina was one R'shiel had been hoping she would not have to face. When Denjon calmly
announced he could "take care of a couple of hundred Kariens", she had callously hoped they would
simply die in battle, saving her the problem of what to do with them afterwards. The Defenders,
however, were far too efficient to indulge in such needless bloodshed. They had rounded up the Kariens
and taken them prisoner with only a handful of Karien casualties and none at all from their own ranks.