"Esther M. Friesner - Puss" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friesner Esther M)

road."
"None come back?" I did not need to question when I saw the answer in her face.
"None whole," she replied, her little pink mouth a hard line. "Once, when I was
out riding the meadows as a child, I saw another horse come galloping toward me.
He was very beautiful, a roan, and riderless. But from the silver saddle on his back
there hung a heavy sack, and when I leaned forward to grab his bridle, it fell into the
grass. He bucked and plunged away from me, heels kicking out to shatter my poor
pony's hind leg. As we fell, he raced away. My pony limped and screamed, bobbing
and lurching back to the stables where one of my father's men cut her throat for
mercy. I was left behind."
"And the sack," I said.
"Oh, yes. The sack." A pin whose tip is black with poisoned gum can leave a
scratch behind much like her smile. "Would you like to know what was in the sack,
Puss?"
 I did not need that knowledge. "Their heads?" My black-slit eyes held hers. "Or if
they were men who died, thenтАФ"
She shrieked with what was almost mirth. "Really, Puss! I expected more
discretion of such a fine courtier. To speak of such things before a virgin." She
pressed her hands against the granite sill until the knuckles bulged and whitened. "All
the messengers my father ever sent there vanished. Even knowing what my father
knew, all of them carried pretty vellum scrolls offering the castle's unknown lord my
hand and body in exchange for free trade and safe conduct. When you arrived, I
hoped you had come to tell us that it is the lair of your dear master, the Marquis of
Carrabas."
I cocked my head. "Why?"
"Because if my life is a mere trader's token, to be sold to that castle's lord, I
would like to purchase it back myself. I have the price." She left the window to kneel
before a small painted chest at the foot of her bed. The olivewood casket she lifted
from it might have housed the grisly relics of a saint. The black-blade dagger it did
contain was exquisite, a tangle of inlaid silver lying like cobwebs over the amber
handle. Having dazzled my eyes with its spare loveliness, she replaced it in its casket,
dropping a single fold of plain linen over the blade like a shroud.
"I see my wedding gift must wait," she said.
That night, while my old master's son ate and drank at the king's own table, I
found occasion to draw aside His Majesty's prime minister and issue formal
invitation to the castle of my lord the Marquis of Carrabas on the morrow. His look
went from perplexity to cold cowardice when he heard exactly where I would have
him bring his sovereign.
I raised a paw to staunch his babblings. "My lord the Marquis of Carrabas is well
aware of all atrocities committed against your people. I tell you, Lord, they are a gall
on his heart, not the work of his hands at all. What can a younger brother do, when
title and power are held by a madman? I do not like to recall how many times he and
I were dragged to the brink of death at his elder brother's insane fancy. My kind can
only offer so much protection to our charges, you know."
"Yes, yes, to be sure," the prime minister huffed and fumbled. "That is, I have
heard the storiesтАФThree wishes, isn't it? Or is it the baptismal gift I am thinking of?
Oh dear, so many talesтАж Do you fairies all subscribe to the same protocols?"
A cat's eyes hide humor wonderfully well. "Your pardon, but I am not at liberty to
say."
"Doubtless, of course." He coughed into his fist. "Then I may assume the former