"Esther M. Friesner - Chicks 03 - Chicks 'N Chained Males" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friesner Esther M)

Now, through clenched teeth, Mirabel tried once more. "MonicaтАФwe do help womenтАФeach other. We
were founded as a mutual-aid society for all women soldiers, though we do what we canтАФ" The LAAS
charity ball, for instance, supported the education of the orphaned daughters of soldiers.

"Helping each other is just like helping yourself, and helping yourself is selfish. Here's this poor woman,
with no hope of getting her brother free if you don't do somethingтАФ"

Mirabel felt her resistance crumbling, as it usually did if her sister talked long enough.

"I don't see how he can be a virgin, if he's older than his sister," she said. A weak argument, and she
knew it. So did Monica.

"You can at least investigate, can't you? It can't hurt . . ."

It could get her killed, but that was a remote danger. Her sister was right here and now. "No promises,"
Mirabel said.

"Iknew you'd come through," said Monica.
***

As Mirabel Stonefist trudged glumly across a lumpy wet moor, she thought she should have chosen
"stonehead" for her fighting surname instead of "stonefist." She'd broken fingers often enough to disprove
the truth of her chosen epithet, and over a moderately long career more than one person had commented
on her personality in granitic terms. Stonehead, bonehead, too stubborn to quit and too dumb to figure a
way out . . .
 She had passed three abandoned, ruined villages already, the thatched roofs long since rotted, a few
tumbled stone walls blacked by fire. She'd found hearthstones standing on end like grave markers, and
not one coin of any metal.

And she'd found dragon tracks. Not, to someone who had been in the unfortunate expedition to kill the
Grand Dragon Karshnak of Kreshnivok, very big dragon tracks, but big enough to trip over and fall splat
in. It had been raining for days, as usual in autumn, and the dragon tracks were all full of very cold water.

Her biggest mistake, she thought, had been birth order. If she'd been born after Gervais, she'd have
been the cute little baby sister, and no one would ever have called on her to solve problems for the
family. But as the oldestтАФthe big sister to them allтАФshe'd been cast as family protector and family
servant from the beginning.

And her next biggest mistake, at least in the present instance, had been telling the Ladies' Aid and Armor
Society that she was just going to check on things. With that excuse, no one else could find the time to
come with her, so here she was, trudging across a cold, wet slope by herself, in dragon country.

They must really hate her. They must be slapping each other on the back, back home, and bragging on
how they'd gotten rid of her. They mustтАФ

"Dammit, 'Bel, wait up!" The wind had dropped from its usual mournful moan, and she heard the thin
scream from behind. She whirled. ThereтАФa long way back and belowтАФan arm waved vigorously. She
blinked. As if a dragon-laid spell of misery had been lifted, her mood rose. Heads bobbed among the
wet heather. TwoтАФthree? She wasn't sure, but she wasn't alone anymore, and she felt almost as warm