"Sherwood Smith - Summer Thunder" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Sherwood)

Ananda had gotten Vasalya Lassiter's attentions for a winter's weekend at the Altan snow
house, after which she'd sent triumphant messages to all the other court ladies; but in
spring Vasalya came, alone, to court. And the first person he danced with was Lasva.
She pressed her hands to her throat, wincing at the pain that never seemed to end.


Now Ananda seemed unable to resist making jests every single day of this dreary long
journey, as if she could assuage her own feelings by getting everyone to laugh at the
triumphant Duchess of Alarcansa who'd bought her newly-wedded Duke.


But the truth was inescapable: Vasalya was now a duke, married to Carola Definaen of
Alarcansa, with his hair tied back in the white ribbon of the devoted married man.


When Lasva saw him next, he must be the most distant of acquaintances. Resolution
came with another surge of anguish. She picked up a fan and walked out, trying to put
physical distance between her and memories.


But it had not worked when she left for Sartor--and it did not work now.


_____



"The concert rooms are that way," Macayal said to Ivandred as they walked downstairs.
He pointed with his thumb in one direction, along a carpeted hallway with polished
wooden paneling.


"Concerts," Ivandred repeated. "Since we won't see our princess for the crowds--is she
even here?--why don't we just leave and camp with my riders?"


Macayal shook his head. "We stay here, like proper princes, and practice our Kifelian. We
need it," he added.


Ivandred could not argue with that. He'd discovered on the month-long ride north and
east that Kifelian, the language of the Colendi people, was deceptively easy to learn, for it
was related to the Sartoran that all educated persons were taught along with their home
tongue, but the way people spoke it was quick, curiously drifting, with convoluted tenses
whose meaning was difficult to grasp without reflection. In addition to that these courtiers
seemed to sing, almost, the way their voices rose, fell, paused with drawn-out vowels that
sometimes changed notes.