"Naomi Kritzer - Turning the Storm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kritzer Naomi)

conservatory? Secretly?"
Lia nodded. "Of course. You seemed to be very good at picking them up; I
eavesdropped on you to learn the ones I know."
"Mira got a group together to play the songsтАФme, Bella, Giula, Flavia, and Celia."
Lia's face brightened. "I wish I'd been there for that! ButтАФGiula? What was she
thinking?"
"It was Celia who nearly got us into trouble. A few weeks after Viaggio, Bella got a
letter saying that one of her sisters had died. We met to play the funeral song, but Celia
walked out right afterward, saying that we had crossed the line into worship of false gods.
And then Giorgi, the cook's assistant, came in and told us all we were playing with fire.
That kind of shut down our secret ensemble." I sighed and swirled my wine in my glass.
"Bella wasn't ready to give up on the Old Way, though; she went to Giorgi and said she
wanted him to teach her more about it. I overheard them talking." Lia shot me a look and
I suppressed a smile. "I guess I was eavesdropping."
 "That's the Eliana I remember," Lia said.
"Then the Fedeli came." I poured myself more wine; my hand trembled slightly. "Just
before Mascherata. Celia tried to convince us all to turn ourselves in. But Mira would have
had to flee, and Bella was ready to die for her newfound faith rather than forswear it. So
we decided to brazen it out, though Celia nearly turned us all in anyway."
"But she didn't."
"No. On the night of Mascherata, they sent us all to dance in the courtyardтАФgirls and
boys together. Bella was playing. Very late that night, one of the Fedeli suddenly tore
Bella's trumpet out of her hands and told her to swear loyalty to the Lady. When she said
she was a Redentore, they cut her throat." I knew that Lia would look horrified, that
however many awful things she'd seen here at Chira, the murder of her old friend would
be no less dreadful. So I didn't look up. I fished Bella's cross out from under my shirt and
held it out. "This was Bella's. I found it in the courtyard the next day and pocketed it."
"Bella was wearing a cross while the Fedeli were at the conservatory?" Lia raised her
wine cup in salute. "That's our Bella."
"In the spring, I came back to our room one day, and there were a half dozen men
lying in wait for Mira. They made me wait with them. One of them was a mage." The wine
tasted like ashes; I forced myself to take another sip. "It turned out that Mira was a
mage, too, from the Circle. She'd run away and hidden at the Verdiano Rural
Conservatory because she'd found out that it was the Circle's magicтАФ" I set down my
wine very carefully. "It was the Circle's magic that drained the Verdiani lands, that
created the wasteland."
Lia had not known this. She went white, and then carefully raised one eyebrow. "I
should have guessed. We can't use witchlight here."
"Nor anywhere else in the wasteland." I sighed. "LiemoтАФthat was the mage who'd
come for herтАФtried to persuade Mira to go back to Cuore with him. She refused. So he
had his guardsmen take me hostage. They were going to shoot me in the hand." My hand
curled tightly now around the wine cup. "Mira used her magic to destroy the bolt before it
hit me. And then she just crumbled. She started to weep, and she followed him like a
tethered animal. He'd brought an extra horse for her, and she rode away with him."
The room was quiet. We could hear noise from beyond the building walls, but it
seemed a long way away.
"Did Mira say anything? Did you say anything to her?"
"I begged her not to go," I said. "I followed her to the courtyard and shouted for her
not to listen to him. And when I knew she was leaving, no matter what I said, I sang to
herтАФwe all did. Giula, Flavia, Celia, and I. We sang her one of the Redentori songs she'd