"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 04 - Kalin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

"Now," said Dumarest. He cut the deck into three stacks. "You
know this game?"

She nodded. "Highest, lowest, man-in-between. You want me
to pick the winning card?"
 "If you can."

"This one," she said after a moment's thought. The tip of one
slender finger rested on the left-hand stack.

Dumarest turned over the cards. The others showed a ten and
a three; hers a seven. As man-in-between she would have won
the pot. Again he shuffled, taking special care not to see the
cards, taking even more care that the pips were shielded from
her view. Again she chose the winning stack. And again,
againтАФten times in all before he called a halt.

Thoughtfully he leaned back and looked at the girl. She had
bathed and the terror and strain had left her face and eyes. They
were still green pools of fire, still enormous in the translucent
whiteness of her face, but now she looked what she was, an
amazingly attractive woman instead of a hunted animal.

"Kalin," he said. "Kalin what?"

She shrugged. "Just Kalin."

"No Family? No House? No Guild?"

"There are people who live without such things," she said.
"You, for example."

"You know?"

"I guessed," she admitted. "But it's pretty obvious. You have
the look of a man who has learned to rely on no one but himself.
A man who has lived hard and alone. The way you saved me
shows that. Other men would have waited for someone to tell
them what to do. You simply acted. If you had hesitated I would
have been killed."

"Hunted down for being a witch," he said. "Are you?"

"Am I what? A witch?"

He waited, watching.

"I don't know," she confessed. "Just what is a witch supposed
to be? I told people things," she explained. "I wanted to be