"Elizabeth Moon - Sweet Charity" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

Sweet Charity
Elizabeth Moon


Krystal Winterborn eyed her lumpish fellow members of the Ladies Aid & Armor Society, and sighed.
There they were: the brave, the bold, the strong . . . the plain.



She was tired of being the butt of their jokes, just because she paid extra on her health-care plan for a
complexion spell to keep her peach-blossom cheeks and pearly teeth. They laughed at her herbal
shampoos, the protective grease she wore on summer maneuvers. They rolled their eyes at her fringed
leather outfits, her spike-heeled dress boots.



Well, this year's Charity Ball would show them. No more laughing, when she was Queen of the Ball, and
raised many times more for the orphaned daughters of soldiers killed in the line of duty. She would never
have to hear their condescending "Shut up, Krystal" again.



When the chair asked for volunteers, Krystal surprised everyone by signing up for Invitations.

***

Harald Redbeard had come to the city in the character of an honest merchant. Downriver, on the coast,
everyone knew he was a Fish Islands pirate. The coast patrol had almost trapped him in Hunport, but
instead of making a break for the sea, he'd come upriver with his crew, until things quieted down.



It was nigh on midwinter when he reached the kingdom known to its downstream neighbors as the
Swordladies' Domain. He grinned at thatтАФmost of the mountain kingdoms had a reputation for fierce
warrior women. But the only warrior women he'd seen had been bouncers at Gully Blue's tavern in
Hunport. He'd tossed both of them into the harbor.



An icy wind blew from the mountains, and lowering clouds promised snow as the crew offloaded their
cargo; Harald sent old Boris One-eye off to find them an inn. One-eye reported that he'd found rooms at
the Green Cat, and he'd seen some warrior women.



"Like soldiers, they are, in uniform."



"Not a problem," Harald said. "If they're part of the city guard, that'll make it all the easier for us."