"Janrae Frank - Journey of Sacred King 1 - My Sister's Keeper" - читать интересную книгу автора (Frank Janrae)

"What else when ya got three in a bed," Tagalong's mouth screwed up in a smug
twist as she delivered her coup.

Becca's cheeks warmed and she stammered, "Oh, right. Three in a bed. Of course.
Twins." As delicious as Brendorn looked, Becca felt herself rapidly losing interest.

Tagalong did not tell her the whole story of the kyndi, of how the golden banewitch
queen of Waejontor had cursed the Sharani more than a millennium ago causing
nearly all their male children to be miscarried or still born. They had appealed to
Ishla Twice-Gendered, God of Love, Fertility and Technology for aid in removing
the curse.

But Ishla was not a remover of curses. Instead she altered their genetics. By
enabling a pregnant woman to pass her embryo to another, by way of a magical
phenomenon called the kyndi, she made it possible for one woman to bear the
children for both. A child then shared the womb mother's genetic inheritance along
with the blood mother and sire. That the curse had been ended тАУ by five Sharani
heroes, a quest the only survivors of which had been Tamlestari's wombmother and
her young sister, Cassana тАУ had done only a little to lift the birth and survival rate of
Sharani male infants.

****

Aejys Rowan stood apart from the joyful scene, her mood gone melancholy. There
was a small, almost imperceptibly sad twist to her full lips. Her eyes misted watching
Brendorn kiss the top of Tagalong's head. She folded her arms, repressing her desire
to join in, holding herself aloof, and wondering whether they would greet her with as
much joy or if it would be reproof. She had deserted her family, fleeing a dangerous
situation she could not alter. She had no rights to his affection and love, or even his
friendship. Yet her arms ached to clasp him. She did not know why they had come,
but she suspected, even feared, that it had nothing to do with love. For seven long
years she had dreamed of reunion with him and the rest of her small family, even
while she rode farther and farther away from them.

She dragged in an uncertain breath as they approached. He had always been the
only kind and gentle thing in her rock hard life, the one unmitigated joy. Only in his
arms had she ever found true peace, even for a moment, in her troubled, war-torn
life. "Brendorn?" Her hands shook. She clasped them together while a roar of
emotion тАУ shame, love, pain, filled her mind with confusion. Aejys realized that she
was on the edge of losing it as she stammered: "I тАУ I meant to send for you,
Brendorn. On my honor." Impulsively her hands came up, reached for him, and
drew back.

"Aejys," he spoke her name softly, as hesitant as she, yet longing crept into his
tone, "I know you did."
 He extended both hands to her. Aejys clasped them and drew him into her arms.
She covered his lips with hers, bending a little to reach him. They kissed deeply,
hungrily. When Aejys pulled back finally, tears streaked both their faces. "God's
heart, I've missed you," she said.