"Kate Forsyth - Eileanan 05 - The Skull Of The World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forsyth Kate)

smiling, teasing and pleasuring. Usually they had only a hurried coupling among the sharp rocks of the
shore or in the cold, ghost-haunted ruin of the witches' tower where no one else dared go. This past
month had been blissful for both of them.
Free for once of the idle cruelty of his many brothers, Nila had enjoyed sporting in the mild waters, diving
for pearls and making love to Fand in the soft sand without fear of being discovered. Not that his father
and brothers would disapprove of his relationship with the young half-human slave. That, after all, was
what females were for. It had just never occurred to any of his brothers to look twice at Fand, who was
considered rather useless, since she had not inherited the ability to transform into the Fairgean sea-shape.
Her delicately formed features and sea-green eyes were too human to be beautiful, and there were plenty
of full-blooded Fairgean women to keep his brothers occupied.

If just one of his brothers had suspected Nila was emotionally drawn to the halfbreed, however, they
would have taken pleasure in taking her from him. They would have used her for their sadistic games, and
then killed her when they had grown tired of the amusement of Nila's pain. The Fairgean princes had
been raised to be brutal and ambitious, and there was much hatred and rivalry between them. It did not
matter that Nila was the youngest of seventeen sons and a long way away from inheriting the black pearl
crown. Life was hard for the Fairgean. Strength and ruthlessness were admired, and mercy mocked as
weak.

Nila's mother had been a gentle woman, though, and she had tried to shield her son from the vicious
contests of his older brothers. Since she was the least of all the queens and the Fairgean king had so
many other sons to distract his attention, she had to some extent succeeded. Nila had grown up knowing
something of love and tenderness, and when his father the King had gambled his mother away with the
toss of a sea-stirk knuckle, Nila had been filled with inarticulate rage and anguish. Away from the
protection of the Fairgean king's cave and worn out by the brutality of her new husband, his fragile
mother had soon died, leaving Nila with a profound hatred of his father and his kind.

He had known Fand all his life, for she had served in the King's court since she was a child. This was
probably how she had managed to survive without the ability to transform, for the King and his immense
retinue lived within the shelter of the caves, where hot water bubbled and hissed even when icebergs
drifted in the ocean outside. Although she still had to fight for scraps of food, Fand had a stone ledge on
which to lie and so did not have to struggle to stay afloat in the rough, icy waters or battle for a place on
the rafts. Nila's mother had been kind to her and given her the occasional fragment of fish to eat and rags
of fur in which to wrap herself, and so Fand had not died of starvation or exposure as so many of her
kind did.

They had grown up together, King's son and slave, and the callous gambling away of the gentle woman
they both loved had united them even closer. Nila did not share his brothers' contempt for halfbreeds. He
remembered well his half-sister Maya who had been kind to him before she had been taken away by the
Priestess of Jor. He loved Fand more than anything else in his cold, barren life. She returned his passion
with equal ardor, and so they kept their love secret with obsessive care.

Nila stirred and stretched, filled with contentment. He rolled over so he could look down at Fand, whose
eyes were closed, a half-smile on her full-lipped mouth. "I have something for you," he whispered. As he
drew the black pearl out of his pouch, she opened her eyes, the curve of her lips deepening. The smile
faltered when she saw what he was holding. She knew as well as Nila that black pearls were worn only
by royalty.

"We can hide somewhere along the shore until the pod returns north," he said urgently. "They will think
we have drowned . . ."