"Huff, Tanya - Kigh 01 - Sing The Four Quarters V2.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

"Riverboat?"
"What else."
"You push?"
"A little."
"Captain won't like that."
"Extenuating circumstances."
Ceci laughed. "They always are. Stasya's out in the city."
"Good for her."
"When she comes in, shall I tell her you're back or let her find out for herself?"
Annice thought about it for a moment, then called down from the top of the stairs. "You'd better tell her. You know how she hates surprises."
"You're the one who wanted to be on the fourth floor," she reminded herself a few moments later, resting on the third floor landing. "And you're the one who wanted rooms at the back of the building not the front. You've got no one to blame for this final effort but yourself."
The soup and bread very nearly made it to her rooms before she did. She'd barely Sung the lamp alight and checked to see that the kigh dancing on the wick was safely contained when the server arrived.
"Just set the tray here," she said, lifting a jumbled heap of slates off a round table and searching desperately for a place to put them. As usual, Stasya had left their common room looking like a storm had recently passed through. Finally, as it seemed to be the only clear space remaining, she stuffed the slates under a chair, stood her instrument case against the wall, and shrugged her pack off to crash to the floor.
The older man clicked his tongueЧat the noise or the mess, Annice wasn't sure whichЧand nudged a pile of colored chalks aside with the edge of the tray. "I brought you some cheese," he said, straightening. "Need more than just bread and soup after a Long Walk."
"I only walked in from Riverton today, Leonas," Annice pointed out, removing a half-strung harp and a pair of torn breeches from her favorite chair. "Not all the way from Ohrid."
Leonas ignored her. "Probably haven't had any decent food for the whole two quarters."
"I actually ate quite well."
He snorted and looked her over. "Gained a little weight, did you?"
Annice sighed. She couldn't win. "Good night, Leonas."
"Good night, Princess."
"LeoЕ"
"If I can call my Giz Cupcake when she never was one," he interrupted, glaring back at her from the threshold, "I can call you Princess when you aren't one no more. Get some sleep. You look terrible." Jerking the door closed behind him, he left Annice no room to argue.
Leonas had already been serving at the Bardic Hall for thirty years when the fourteen-year-old Annice arrived. Determined not to let it show, lest word get back to her brother, she was hurt and confused and had no idea of how not to act like a princess. Leonas had gruffly taken her under his wing, explaining little things it had never occurred to the bards that she wouldn't know, easing the transition as much as he could. Over the years, he'd slid into the role of trusted retainer and if he wanted to call her "Princess," she supposed he'd earned the right. She tried to discourage it, though; she'd long left that life behind.
Stripping off her wet clothes and letting them lie where they fell, she pulled a heavy woolen robe and sheepskin slippers from the wardrobe in her bedroom, shuffled down the hall to use the necessityЧfortunately running into no one with whom she'd have to make conversationЧthen finally sat down to eat.
The soup was excellent, big chunks of tender clam in a thick vegetable stock. Not entirely trusting her stomach, Annice saved the bread and cheese for later.
She thought about lighting a fire, butЧin spite of the rain slapping against the shuttersЧit just wasn't cold enough to justify making the effort. Besides, once in bed with the curtains closed, she'd be plenty warm enough. Setting thought to action, she picked up the lamp and shuffled into the bedroom.
Blankets and sheets were heaped in a tangled pile. The down comforter trailed on the floor, evidence of a hasty departure, and all but one of the four pillows had been thrown to the foot of the bed.
"I can't believe she can sleep in this," Annice muttered, tugging the mess into some semblance of order. "And I don't even want to know how she tore that corner of the curtain." Bed finally tidied, she Sang the kigh in the lamp a gratitude and, in the dark, slipped off her robe and slid naked between the sheets. Just as they began to warm around her body, her bladder decided to get her up again.
"I just went!" she told it.
It didn't seem to matter.
"If it isn't one end lately, it's the other," she complained, groping for her slippers. "I am really getting tired of this."
"Nees? Are you asleep?"
Annice roused enough to murmur an affirmative, then gasped as a cold body wrapped around hers. "Stasya, you're freezing!"
"You're not. You're nice and warm."
"I was nice and warm."
"Oh, hush. I'll warm up in a minute and you won't even know that I'm here."
"Not likely." Annice squirmed as the other woman began chewing on her ear. "Stop it, Stas. I'm tired."
"I missed youЕ"
"I missed you, too, but I'm tired."
"Can I welcome you home in the morning?"
"You can do what you want in the morning," Annice muttered, "if you'll just let me sleep now."
When she woke again, weak light shone through the space between the bedcurtains, enough to illuminate the woman propped on one elbow and staring down at her.
"Hi."
"Hi yourself." Stasya smiled and waggled dark brows. "It's morning. Welcome home. Remember what you promised?"
"^
She remembered a cold body very clearly, but the rest only vaguely. "StasЕ"
"StasЕ" The other woman mocked and leaned forward. "It was witnessed by a bard," she whispered, breath tickling Annice's lips.
"Stasya." Annice shoved her aside as her stomach rose to greet the day. "Get out of my way. Now!"
"How long has this been going on?"
"I don't know." Panting, Annice sat back on her heels, steadying herself against the toilet. A while now."