"Nina Osier - Exile's End" - читать интересную книгу автора (Osier Nina M)

entire nine years since he'd completed his military obligation and returned to his father's ship to get the
House back on an even keel; it had been tottering dangerously by that time, with Anders Valeria's young
second wife dead and his attention focused solidly on chemical consolation rather than on his business or
even on his ship.

Jock would have liked nothing better than to have gone down to the Fair with his young half-
siblings, on this day when the real business was taking place aboard the orbiting ships and what happened
dirtside was for fellowship and entertainment's sake only; but he no longer had that luxury, had not had it
since the year he himself had been just turned eighteen and on his way - literally, straight from the Fair -
to Guardbase Alpha to begin his three years of compulsory military service. So he had sent twins Jason
and Xanthe, who were celebrating their own eighteenth birth-anniversary this very day, down to the
festivities with firm instructions: "Enjoy every minute of it! I wish I'd known when I was 18 that being
young doesn't last forever!"

That, of course, made his half-siblings look at each other with mingled amusement and disgust. In a
sense he seemed as ancient to them as did their father, and therefore it was not conceivable that he'd ever

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been as young as they were; and in another sense he was their brother, not their parent, and therefore had
no business making such speeches.

They were technical adults themselves, as of today, and had for the first time been admitted to any
entertainment they cared to sample; had been able to purchase intoxicants, experiment as they pleased -
and hadn't bothered with much of it, because like so many of their kind they had figured out ways to do
illegally at fourteen (or earlier) everything that today was supposed to be so new and magical at eighteen.
Jason had spent much of his time discreetly trailing after a certain golden-haired, closely-chaperoned girl;
and Xanthe had spent her time keeping an eye on her twin.

Which was why they were arguing now, uncharacteristically, as the shuttle they were co-piloting
lifted from Chaitanya's surface toward their father's ship and as night began to come down on the
hemisphere where Chaitanya Spaceport was located. No longer were they young enough for curfews, but
staying dirtside to sleep hadn't even occurred to either of them. It was almost beyond imagining, to
voluntarily sleep anywhere but in the safety of the Valeria's familiar compartments.

"Jason, you looked just plain foolish!" Xanthe told her brother now, tossing her mane of dark hair
and giving him a quick glare when her eyes weren't busy with the instrument console in front of her.
"How could you think she'd be interested in you, even if she could get away from her chaperone? Do you
think she doesn't know her father hates ours?"

Jason Valeria was not responding well to his twin's needling, because he was barely noticing it at
all. The slim, wiry young man - shorter by centimeters than half-brother Jock, and so much less
powerfully built that seeing the likeness of their faces was always something of a shock to strangers - was
doing his job as co-pilot well enough, because that came almost as naturally as breathing; but he was
thinking far more about that slender, blonde girl who'd been boarding another House's shuttle just as he
and Xanthe had boarded theirs, than about his sister's chattering tongue.

"Jason! You do know that's Kyla Robie you've been trailing around all day?" Xanthe could have
reached out and shaken him, the half-smile on his face was so aggravating. "I realize no one ever sees her,