"Mercedes Lackey - EM 3 - The Serpents Shadow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

with the ballet. The same lessons that make them so graceful will do
the same for you-"
"Fencing lessons are quite fashionable, are they not?" the young
woman said, after a moment staring off into space in thought. "The
theater director might be pleased to find I'm taking them, and he's
mentioned dancing class once or twice as well."
Ah. Music hall, operetta, or popular theater, I think. She is
probably playing the "Ingenue" and the "Innocent Maid." And she wants
to stay the Ingenue for as long as she can.
"Quite," Maya reassured her. "Now wait one moment; I will go and
fetch a prescription I think will please you better than any pill or
patent medicine to ensure a perfect complexion."
She rose and went to a very special cupboard which stood in the
surgery office in place of one of the bookcases. From it, she brought
out a carved sandalwood box, which she took to the desk, opening it
to Miss Smith's curious gaze. It contained six carved stone jars.
"These are from India, are they not?" Miss Smith asked, newly aroused
interest causing her intense blue eyes to shine in a way that must
have been irresistible to any man. "Like . . ." she began, then
flushed, and put her hand in its red-silk glove to her lips.
"Like me, you were about to say?" Maya laughed. "Miss Smith, I cannot
conceal my parentage, so I do not trouble to try. But because of my
parentage ..." She lowered her voice, and Miss Smith leaned forward
eagerly. "Because my mother was of great learning in the ancient ways
of her people, I have knowledge that is not accessible to those of
this land. My mother's people believe that female beauty is a thing
to be cultivated and made to flourish, then preserved for as long as
she lives. They do not believe that it is a sin to be lovely. I do
not only supply physic internally, Miss Smith, I am prepared to
supply it externally as well."
Great good heavens, I sound like a patent medicine man! But Miss
Smith took in the words with parted lips and shining eyes, and Maya
continued in the same vein. "Here are my special balms and lotions,
meant to enhance and preserve against the threats of cruel weather
and the hand of time. I have an apothecary at my disposal. He
compounds them under my strict supervision."
She wrote down the name and address of the apothecary at the end of
the street with whom she had set up her arrangement. She supplied the
herbs, after a little preparation of her own, and he did the rest.
There was more in those jars than just salves and balms; there was
magic there, magic infused into the herbs with which they were made.
It was not a magic that would ensnare a man's mind and passion for
all time (although she could, but would not, do that as well). This
was the gentle magic of the earth, green magic, Maya's own. It fed
and nurtured, fed the generous instincts that were part of man or
woman, creating a beauty that would not fade.
The young woman took out one of the jars, a gentle face cream
compounded of aloe, rosewater, glycerin, and several healing herbs.
She opened it gingerly and sniffed. Her face reflected her delight in
the scent of roses that wafted up from the cream. "They are very