"Norton, Andre - Mercedes Lackey - Elvenblood" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

Norton, Andre & Lackey, Mercedes - Elvenblood


Scanned by Highroller and proofed more or less by Highroller



Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey's Elvenblood



Chapter 1

SHEYRENA HAD GROWN very weary of coos of admiration over the last hour
or so. Human voices, harsh and heavy by elven standards, did not normally grate
on her ears, but they did today.

"Oh, my lady, there has never been a gown so lovely, I swear!" The nameless
blond slave out of her mother's household shook her head over the shimmering
folds of Sheyrena's gown. She probably spoke the truth, by her own standards; it
was heavy damascene silk, of peacock-blue shot through with threads of pearly
iridescence. The color was far more vivid than anything ever seen in nature.

And a more wretched color for me could not be imagined. It would, of course,
completely overwhelm her. She would be a ghost in the stolen costume of the
living.

'Truly!" gushed another. "You will ravish the mind of every lord who sees you!"

Only if they have taste for a maiden who resembles a corpse bedecked for her
funeral. No amount of careful makeup would ever give her the coloring to match
that gown.

It was suitable for the vivid beauty of a human concubine, not an elven maid, and
particularly not one who was pale even by the standards of her own race. It was
typical of her father to have chosen something that would display, not her, but the
power, his power, that made it possible.


file:///F|/rah/Andre%20Norton/Norton,%20Andre%...20Chronicles%2002%20-%20Elvenblood%20[v1].html (1 of 354) [7/1/03 12:17:03 AM]
 Norton, Andre & Lackey, Mercedes - Elvenblood


Sheyrena an Treves closed her ears to the chattering of her human slaves and
wished she could be anywhere but where she was. The windowless, pale blue
marble walls of her dressing room were far too confining at the best of times; now,
as it was crowded with the bodies of not only her own half-dozen slaves, but an
additional four from her mother's retinue, she was not entirely certain there was
enough air to go around. There was too much perfume and heat in here; she
wished vaguely for an escape from all of it.