"Recluce - 07 - The Chaos Balance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

spent a lot of golds, too much if he intended another battle. He's lost
two armies in less than a year. And Lornth-who do they have left to send
against us? This Cyador's farther south, and from what I can determine,
they'd have to march over Lornth to get to us."
аа Ayrlyn brushed back the flame-red hair off her forehead, but the
breeze whipped the fine short stands right back across her eyes. "I
wasn't thinking about Westwind. I was thinking about you."
аа "Me?"
аа "What happened to Gerlich?"
аа "I'm not like him."
аа "I know that, but does Ryba? More to the point, does it matter?"
Ayrlyn brushed back her hair again in exasperation. "Almost every guard
in Westwind would throw herself in front of an arrow or a blade for you.
How long will Ryba stand that? You've already told her you won't stand
for stud on her terms. That makes you a social gelding."
аа Nylan winced. Ryba had slaughtered the geldings for food the first
winter, and he could remember asking himself if that would be his
eventual fate. Ayrlyn was suggesting his time might be coming sooner than
he'd thought.
аа "I can see that the thought isn't totally unforeseen."
аа "I was thinking about geldings in Westwind," Nylan admitted.
аа "That. .. you're not. I mean, that's not what I meant." The healer and
singer flushed almost as brightly as her hair.
аа "It isn't?"
аа Ayrlyn eased the chestnut closer to the mare. "You know, Nylan," she
began with a grin, "sometimes you are such a noble and honorable pain in
the ass, such an agonizingly long-suffering and noble pain. Nylan will
take it on; Nylan will make it right." The grin grew wider. "And then you
do."
аа "I'm not that bad," he protested. "I'm not."
аа "Ryba thinks so." The grin vanished. "I'm serious. Why does she have
you working so hard, making weapons that the guards won't need for years?
Why is she suggesting that you train more smiths?"
аа "I'd wondered about that, but she thinks so far in advance."
аа "It's about time we did."
аа "We?" Nylan forced a grin.
аа "We. Istril got the last favor. The very last favor of that nature."
аа "I was thinking that Siret..."
аа Ayrlyn put her free left hand on the hilt of the shortsword and drew
it enough to show black steel. "You do, and I won't wait for Ryba for
this gelding business."
аа "I get the point, woman."
аа "If you don't, you will." Ayrlyn resheathed her blade with a wicked
grin. "And no more of this sleeping alone."
аа Nylan groaned, loudly. Then he grinned.
аа After a moment, so did Ayrlyn.
аа The wind whistled, more loudly, and they both looked up to see the
leading edge of a cloud bank appearing over the cliff edge above.
аа Ayrlyn shivered. "I'm cold. Can we start back?"
а а Nylan nodded, and flicked the mare's reins. Ayrlyn eased the chestnut