"Shirley Meier & S. M. Stirling - Fifth Millenium 03 - The Cage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Meier Shirley)

watertight chest had saved their lives once though, keeping them
afloat through a shipwreck.

"And worse," Megan said. "At least we're not head to heels
with seventeen other travelers." Megan was unpacking her
personal chest; books, scrolls, curios, a collection of knives
ranging from tiny things that could be bent into a beltbuckle or
held concealed in a palm to miniature shorts words. Last of all, a
needlesword with a bell guard. She considered it almost
distastefully, then leaned it against the wall by the bed. "Much
worse, ifтАФ" She stopped and clapped a hand to her forehead as
Shkai'ra set up a small six-armed joss on the windowledge. "Oh,
no, no more sacrifices in our bedroom!"
 The tall woman shrugged. "Glitch can have his sheep
outside."

"Thank you Koru, Goddess. Much worse places, if you
remember that fisher shack we were stuck in all last winter on
that damned islandтАФ"

"Not so bad, once the smell faded," Shkai'ra said, bouncing
experimentally on the bed. "If there'd been any place to go, we
wouldn't have ended up so near murdering each other." A grin.
"Not that we didn't find some things to occupy our time, eh?
Mind you, you're near as bad on shipboard, when you can't have
a cabin to yourself; and you a riverboat captain! Half the time
up the mast, especially those last few days."

Megan laid down the bag of clothing and locked eyes with her
companion. "ThisтАж" She moistened her lips. "I've been two years
away, kh'eeredo." She paused, remembering. "I've never told you
that story, have I?"

Shkai'ra unlatched the walrus-ivory buckles on her boots and
braced heel against instep to pull them off. "No," she said,
turning on one side and lying propped up on an elbow. "Not the
details, just that Habiku was your second and betrayed you." She
reached out a hand, a brief light touch. "Got the impression he
wasтАж hmmm, likeable but suspicious. Hard to distrust someone
likeable; which is why we Kommanza try so hard to dislike
everybody." The blonde woman smiled, a quiet, almost shy
expression, unlike her usual raffish grin."Make an exception for
you, kh'eeredo."

Megan smiled back, sat down on the bed. "Thanks; after more
than a year of sleeping together, it's nice to know." She poked
Shkai'ra in the ribs with her bare toe. "Up on the mast I'd think
about him, too," she said, going very quiet, very still. "The night
he betrayed me he came in after his swim, carrying an expensive
bottle of wineтАФ A Yeoli wine. A Terahan 1541 by their