"Joe Haldeman - Blood Brothers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haldeman Joe)

with the customers and reasonably honest, though he gave short measures to some of the
more intoxicated patronsтАФprobably not out of concern for their welfare. He started to pour
a third glass of the liqueur and saw Amoli, the Lily Garden's mistress, come into the place,
along with the eunuch and another bodyguard. He went out to meet them.
"Wine over here," he said to a serving wench, and escorted the three to a curtained-off
table.
Amoli was almost beautiful, though she was scarcely younger than One-Thumb, in a
trade that normally aged one rapidly. She came to the point at once. "Kalem tells me you
have twenty grimales of Caronne for sale."
"Prime and pure."
"That's a rare amount." One-Thumb nodded. "Where, may I ask, did it come from?"
"I'd rather not say."
"You'd better say. I had a twenty-grimale block in my bed-room safe. Yesterday it was
stolen."
One-Thumb didn't move or change expression. "That's an interesting coincidence."
She snorted. They sat without speaking while a pitcher of wine and four glasses were
slipped through the curtain.
"Of course I'm not accusing you of theft," she said. "But you can understand why I'm
interested in the person you bought it from."
"In the first place, I didn't buy it. In the second, it didn't come from Sanctuary."
"I can't afford riddles, One-Thumb. Who was it?"
"That has to remain secret. It involves a murder."
"You might be involved in another," she said tightly.
One-Thumb slowly reached down and brought out his dagger. The bodyguards tensed. He
smiled and pushed it across the table to Amoli. "Go ahead, kill me. What happens to you
will be rather worse than going without krrf."
"OhтАФ" She knocked the knife back to him. "My temper is short nowadays. I'm sorry. But
the krrfs not just for me; most of my women use it, and take part of their pay in it, which is
why I like to buy in large amounts." One-Thumb was pouring the wine; he nodded. "Do you
have any idea how much of my capital was tied up in that block?"
He replaced the half-full glasses on the round serving tray and gave it a spin. "Half?"
"And half again of that. I will get it back, One-Thumb!" She selected a glass and drank.
"I hope you do. But it can't be the same block."
"Let me judge thatтАФhave you had it for more than two days?"
"No, but it must have left Ranke more than a week ago. It came on the Anenday caravan.
Hidden inside a cheese."
"You can't know for sure that it was on the caravan all the time. It could have been
waiting here until the caravan came."
 "I can hear your logic straining, Amoli."
"But not without reason. How often have you seen a block as large as twenty grimales?"
"Only this time," he admitted.
"And is a pressed design stamped all over it uniformly, an eagle within a circle?"
"It is. But that only means a common supplier, his mark."
"Still, I think you owe me information."
One-Thumb sipped his wine. "All right. I know I can trust the eunuch. What about the
other?"
"I had a vassal spell laid on him when I bought him. Besides . . . show him your tongue,
Gage." The slave opened his mouth and showed pink scar tissue nested in bad teeth. "He
can neither speak nor write."
"We make an interesting table," he said. "Missing thumb, tongue, and tamale. What are