"Greg Keyes - Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone 3 - The Blood Knight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Keyes J Gregory)

growing back but was still short from the shearing she'd had in Tero Galle what
seemed like an age ago. So she was missing hours or days, not ninedays, months, or
years. But she had still misplaced time, and that frightened her.
She remembered leaving Dunmrogh with her maid Austra, a free-woman named
Winna, and thirty-eight men whose company included her Vitellian friend Cazio and
her guardian Sir Neil MeqVren. They'd just won a battle, and most were wounded,
including Anne herself.
But there had been no time for leisurely recovery. Her father was dead, and her
mother the prisoner of an usurper. She'd set out determined somehow to free her
mother and reclaim her father's throne. She remembered feeling very certain about
the whole thing.
What she didn't know, couldn't remember, was where those friends were and why
she wasn't with them. Or, for that matter, who the dead man was, lying at her feet.
His throat had been cut; that much was plain enoughтАФit gaped like a second mouth.
But how had it happened? Was he friend or foe?
Since she didn't recognize him, she reckoned he was most likely the latter.
She sagged against a tree and closed her eyes, studying the dark pool in her mind,
diving into it like a kingfisher.
She'd been riding beside Cazio, and he'd been practicing the king's tongueтАж
 "Esno es caldo," Cazio said, catching a snowflake in his hand, eyes wide with
wonder.
"Snow is cold," Anne corrected, then saw the set of his lips and realized he'd
mispronounced the sentence on purpose.
Cazio was tall and slim, with sharp, foxy features and dark eyes, and when his
mouth quirked like that, he was all devil.
"What is esno in Vitellian?" she demanded.
"A metal the color of your hair," he said in such a way that she suddenly
wondered what his lips would taste like. Honey? Olive oil? He'd kissed her before,
but she couldn't rememberтАж
What a stupid thought.
"Esno es caldo is Vitellian for 'copper is hot,' right?" she translated, trying to hide
her annoyance. By the way Cazio was grinning now, she knew she certainly was
missing something.
"Yes, that's true," Cazio drawled, "if taken literally. But it's a sort of pun. If I were
talking to my friend Acameno and said 'fero es caldo,' it would mean 'iron is hot,'
but iron can also mean a sword, and a sword can mean a man's very personal
armament, you see, and would be a compliment to his manhood. He would assume I
meant his iron. And so copper, the softer, prettier metal can also representтАФ"
"Yes, well," Anne quickly cut in, "that will be enough Vitellian colloquialism for
now. After all, you wanted to work on your king's tongue, didn't you?"
He nodded. "Yes, but it's funny to me, that's all, that your word for 'cold' is my
word for 'hot.'"
"Yes, and it's even funnier that your word for 'free' is 'lover,'" she countered
sarcastically, "considering that one cannot have the second and be the first."
As soon as she saw the look on his face, though, she wished she hadn't spoken.
Cazio immediately raised an interested eyebrow. "Now we're onto a topic I
approve of," he said. "But, ehтАФ'lover'? Ne comtnrenno. What is lover' in the king's
tongue?"
"The same as Vitellian Carilo," she replied reluctantly.
"No," Austra said. Anne jumped guiltily, for she had almost forgotten that her