"Joel Rosenberg - Omnibus 03 - To Home and Ehvenor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rosenberg Joel C)

Or maybe I'm just kidding myself. I've never been good at consistency. Maybe I was up because of the
damn dreams, and because of Kirah.

I poured myself another cup of tea. I don't know what U'len was putting in the mix, but it had a nice
nutty smell that I had gotten very fond of. Not the sort of thing I'd dare have on the roadтАФyou can smell
it in the sweat for a day or so; when you're on the road, eat what the locals eat, or keep it blandтАФbut
very nice.

Jason eyed me quizzically over his mug. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Just fine," I said, easily. Lying always comes easy to me. I had been having a lot of trouble sleeping of
late. Not the only kind of trouble. After several years of getting better, Kirah was getting worse. Some
things even time doesn't cure. Some things just lie beneath the surface and fester.

Damn it all. It wasn't my fault.

Back before I met her, before Karl and I freed her, Kirah had been ill-used. One of her owners was
worse than simply brutal, and while there were no scars on her bodyтАФbelieve me; in happier days, we
explored that mattervery thoroughlyтАФthe scars on her mind had festered over the years.

A miracle was needed, and I didn't have one handy.

We Other Siders have seemed to work wonders at times, but it's only a matter of seeming toтАФwe've
just used the skills we brought with us, or acquired in the transition. Of the original seven of us, I was an
ag major; Karl a dilettante; James Michael Finnegan a computer science major; Andrea, English; Doria,
home ec; Louis Riccetti, engineering; the late Jason Parker (R.I.P.; he didn't make it through even
twenty-four hours on this side), history.

The real treatment for what was ailing Kirah wasn't available on This Side and whether it was available
on the Other Side was debatable, if you like debating useless questions. Psychotherapy can help, but it
can't work miracles.

The real treatment for what was ailingme could probably, as of last night, be found two rooms down
from Kirah's and mineтАФin the bed of Jason's adopted sister, Aeia. Assuming, of course, that Aeia
wanted to pick up where we left off.

Alternately, it was time to go out on the road.

I didn't like either option much. Resuming my relationship with Aeia would be dangerous, and it made
sense to stay put in Jason's new barony for the time being, keeping in shape, waiting to hear some word
about Mikyn.

I also didn't like the idea of Bren, Baron Adahan being under the same roof, whether he really was there
to help the family settle in or to pay court to Aeia.

Most of all, I didn't like the fact that the universe doesn't appear to give a fuck what I do and don't like.

Jason speared the last piece of bacon and set it on my plate. "We could use some more food out here,"
he called out, not getting an immediate answer. Service was less than wonderful.