"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 11 - Zenya" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

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Zenya
#11 in the Dumarest series

E.C. Tubb




Chapter One


She was tall, with a mass of golden hair raised and crested in
an aureole above her head. Thick strands ran from her temples,
cut and shaped into upcurving points which accentuated the
high bones and slight concavity of her cheeks. Her jaw was
round, with a determined hardness, and her lips were full, the
lower pouting in betraying sensuosity. Her eyes were deep-set,
glowing amber, wide-spaced beneath arching brows, their
upward slant giving her the appearance of a watchful cat.

She had, Dumarest realized, been studying him with unusual
interest.

Slowly he turned the page of the ancient volume lying before
him on the reading desk, not looking at the crabbed text beneath
its transparent coating, but concentrating on the girl.

She wore a dress of luminous gold, rich fabric falling from
throat to knee, cinctured at the waist, and tight against the
contours of her body. Her arms were bare, coiled bracelets in the
design of serpents rising from wrists to elbows, gems bright
against the precious metal. Her fingers were long, tapering,
devoid of rings, the nails painted to match her dress. Her skin
was a lustrous bronze.

She was young, obviously wealthy, and completely out of
place. Such a woman would not haunt the musty confines of the
Archives of Paiyar. Her type would be found at the stadium, at
fashion shows, at parties, at the auctions where debtors were
sold into bondage, at the market where merchants offered jewels
and rare fabrics, perfumes from a dozen worlds, unguents, and
titivating lotions. Not even the lowest of courtesans would waste