"Holly Lisle - Secret Texts 3 - Courage Of Falcons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lisle Holly)

Kait winced and nodded. "Perhaps you're right."
Ulwe led them out of the storage room and toward the balconies. As they moved progressively through lighter corridors, past chambers with opened doors and fine furnishings, her mood lifted a little. The
near-perpetual darkness of the deep heart of the House bothered her more than she could ever explain. She was as much at home in dark as in lightтАФbut she wondered still why the original builders of Gal-weigh House had created so many dark, airless, windowless rooms. Who had lived in them, what had they done in them? And why had anyone needed so much space?
Ulwe's path twisted like a serpent; they followed her down a level, then forward again, then down another level. They were very near the balcony rooms; Kait hadn't known of any storage rooms that were so close to the balconies. And when Ulwe took her finally down a corridor that she recognizedтАФone that dead-ended with two balcony rooms and two little storage roomsтАФshe said as much.
"You've made a wrong turn. I know this part of the House."
"This is the right way," the child said. She kept going. Kait didn't argue. It would be simple enough to show her that she'd made an error, and if they wasted a little time, well, she would not complain about any delay that held off disappointment.
To Kait's left, the two doors that would open into the lovely balcony rooms. To her right, the two storage doors. All four were closed. The child opened the second storage room door and walked between the shelves. She rested a palm on the back wall. "They're in there."
Kait looked at the smooth face of the wall, then at the child. "In there."
"Yes."
Kait moved close to the wall and sniffed along its edges. She did catch human scents there. They were faintтАФfar too faint for her to identifyтАФbut people had been here. She ran her fingers along the corners of the wall, then along the back edges of each shelf. To her amazement, she found the slight seams of a pressure pad on the far corner of the bottom right shelf. She pressed, but the pressure pad didn't give. Locked, then . . . from the inside.
Her pulse picked up, and she looked at the child. "You were right. There is a room in there."
"I can feel them in it," Ulwe said. "They're alive."
"Then they can hear me."
"Yes."
Kait stood and pressed both hands against the back wall, and shouted, "Heya! In the room! It's me! Kait Galweigh!"
She pressed an ear against the smooth surface of the stone-of-Ancients, and listened. She heard no movement, no voices, nothing. She waited, then shouted again. "The Sabirs have gone. The three of you can come out. It's me! It's Kait! You're safe now."
Again she pressed her ear to the wall and listened. She heard nothing for a long time, then the faintest whisper. "It might be Kait." A child's whisper.
"Kait's dead. It's the bad people. Be still and they'll go away."
Then stillness again.
"It is me!" Kait called. "I can prove it."
No sound. No movement. The whispers could have belonged to anyoneтАФbut the child had spoken the name Kait with tones of hope. There were other Kaits in the worldтАФthere had been other Kaits within the HouseтАФbut perhaps the people in there had known her. Had, perhaps, cared about her.
What should she tell them to convince them? Should she start
with things the servants might have known, or things Family would
known? Which children had cared about her? Nieces and
nephews? Very young cousins? The children of the upstairs servants?
"I had seven sisters," she said. "Two living brothers. My older sisters were Alcie and Drusa and Echo. My younger sisters were the twins, Loriann and Marciann, and then Luciann and Helena. Kestrell and Ewan were the brothers who died. Willim and Simman are the other brothersтАФboth were younger."
No sound. No response.
Kait continued. "My chambermaid was DanfaithтАФshe came from
village of Hopsett on the north coast, near Radan. My mother's name was Grace DraclasтАФshe was from the lines of Imus Draclas and Wintermarch Corwyn. My father was Strahan Galweigh. His paternal
line came from Ewan Galweigh. We lost track of his maternal line before Brassias Karnee and his mistresses."
Nothing. Please, she thought. Please answer me. Please come out. Please let me think of the right thing to say, so that I can convince you I am who I say I am.
"I had the corner room in the Willow Hall," she continued. "I kept a seashell in a carved puzzle-box beneath my pillowтАФI found it while walking by the shore at our country house. The shell was plainтАФ brown on one side and white on the otherтАФbut when I held it up to the light, it glowed like pink fire. I had a jay feather in there, too, and a crystal my sister Echo gave me. I used to borrow Alcie's horse because it was the fastest and was a steady jumper, but it didn't like me, and she used to get angry with me for riding it."
She heard footsteps moving slowly near the wall. Coming closer and closer. Stopping just at the other side. She held her breath, waiting for the wall to move. But it didn't, and there were no more sounds.
"Please come out," she said.
"Tell me . . . tell me why your brothers died." Still the whisper. She did not know who stood on the other side of the door. She couldn't smell the people in there, she couldn't hear them.
"They were both killed by Sabir spies. They were infants when they died."
"Yes. But why were they killed?"
Kait's heartbeat picked up. Only her own familyтАФher parents and sisters and her surviving brothersтАФhad ever known the answer to that question. In truth, only they had known to ask itтАФand they had kept the truth secret to save their lives. It could still cost her hers.
She closed her eyes tightly and pressed her cheek to the wall. If she whispered the words, she invited deathтАФbut some leaps had to be taken on faith.
"They were Karnee," she said at last. "Like me."
She heard a small sob. Then the wall began to slide back, away from her. Scents rolled out of the sealed storage room, sweetly familiar, and a slender form stepped from the opening.
Kait's nose knew her sister before her eyes recognized her. In fact. her eyes might never have recognized the fragile woman that was her oldest sister.
"Alcie," she whispered.
They threw their arms around each other and wept. When they pulled apart, Kait asked, "Who's with you?" Alcie had had five children.
"Lonar. And the new baby. I named her Rethen."
She led Kait into the room where she'd been hiding. Kait's nephew Lonar hid in a corner, tucked behind a stack of crates, a baby girl clutched in his arms. When he saw Kait, his hunted expression vanished, replaced by a broad smile. "You aren't dead," he shrieked.
"And neither are you." Kait dropped to her knees and held out her arms, and he, clutching the baby, ran into them. "I'm so glad to see you, Lonar. And your new sister. You can't believe how glad."
The baby, startled, began to wail.
Chapter 18
Then you hadn't planned to be down there." Kait and Alcie sprawled in deep chairs in the salon of her family's apartment, facing each other. Alcie nursed her baby and nibbled fresh greens pulled from one of the untouched herb beds on the grounds. Kait sipped warm amber Varhees brandywine straight from the bottle.