"Andre Norton & Lackey, Mercedes - Elvenbane 3 - Elvenborn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

V'kel Aelmarkin er-Lord Tornal smiled down at the slave who
rested her pale-tressed head on his knee. She was his current
personal favorite, a delicate young human female nestled
trustingly against his leg. Her thin, fine-boned face and
porcelain complexion pleased him with their flawless symmetry
and perfection. She returned his smile shyly, yet with a touch of
the coquette, her round, blue eyes reflecting her callow,
unsophisticated nature. No rebellious thoughts dwelling in that
narrow skull--in fact, he would be surprised if she managed to
conjure up more than one or two thoughts of any kind in an
average day! Her pedigree was immaculate, out of a long line of
carefully chosen slaves famed for their beauty and delicacy to
be nothing more complicated than any other ornamental object.
He sighed with contentment, and smoothed the pale gold,
silken hair away from her brow with a gentle caress. She was
exquisite; lovely, eager to please, pliant, graceful, innocent and
incredibly easy to manipulate. Exactly the sort of slave that
gave him the most pleasure. He carefully cultivated that
innocence, and none of his other slaves would dare his wrath
by spoiling that naivetщ. No tales of floggings or more extreme
punishments, no harem-stories of his other "favorites" and what
had become of them--nothing to hint that he had aspects she
had never experienced. So far as she was concerned, he was
the gentle, loving, ever-kind master that she believed him to be.
He turned his attention back to his most important guest.
"There, you see?" he said, gesturing expansively to the hall
before them and its raucous occupants. "Did I not promise you
would be far more amused here than in dancing attendance on
all the dull, hopeful maidens at your father's fete?"
Elvenlord Aelmarkin did not possess enough magic to create a
fanciful illusion in his Great Hall, so the luxurious surroundings
here were all quite real; guests at his entertainments would
always find themselves in the same opulent room that they had
graced at the last entertainment, rather than a new and exotic
setting vastly different from their last. He made up for the lack of
novel surroundings by the lavishness of his entertaining, which
had begun to earn him something of a reputation.
Take this room, for example: fortunately it had been beautifully
constructed in the first place, and he had only needed to
embellish it when it came into his possession. The north and
south walls were mostly of glass--northwards lay a natural lake,
artfully landscaped, and southwards were the pleasure-
gardens. The east and west walls, paneled in wood bleached to
silver, held silver-rimmed doors that led to the rest of the manor.
The ceiling with its bleached-wood beams from which hung
great silver fantasies of lights, crystals, tiny glass sculptures and
silver filigree, also boasted vast transparent skylights; just now
the reflection of the myriad lights made it impossible to see
anything of the outside world, but later, when the lights were
dimmed, the stars would shine impassively down on the