"K. D. Wentworth - Hallah Iron-Thighs and the Five Unseemly Sorrows" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wentworth K D)

purses were emptier than my favorite serving lad's promises and so we were here.



We escorted the goats and their trainer through the castle portcullis without encountering challenge. Once
inside, the smell of perfume grew even stronger. My eyes began to water.



The castle guard, if one can dignify a bunch of sissies tricked up in red dancing outfits trimmed in gold
braid with that designation, surrounded us belatedly. Gerta swore under her breath as she gazed down at
their beardless pink faces. The head sissy, swathed in ribbons and medals, stepped forward and
muttered something about "uncivilized heathens." He fumbled for a hanky and held it to his nose.



My saddle creaked as I leaned toward him. The pasty-faced little turd didn't even top my mare's withers
and he reeked strongly of roses. "What was that?" I asked. "I'm afraid my partner, Gerta, here, didn't
quite hear you, and her so touchy and all about being left out of the flow of conversation."



Gerta smiled wolfishly and drew her dagger.



He flinched and stepped back. "I said, 'Halt where you stand. Creatures dressed in such a brazen,
Unseemly fashion cannot be allowed to offend our liege's eyes!' "



Here we go, I thought and shook my head.



Gerta swung a bare leg over her saddle and leaped to the ground to tower over him. "Who are you
calling Unseemly, bucko?"



He averted his gaze from her ample cleavage, located conveniently for his perusal before his nose, and
turned an innovative shade of red, somewhere between Ripe Tomato and flat-out Fire. "Findlebrot is a
highly moral country," he said stiffly. "Our women are admired far and wide for being the most comely,
the most demure, the most delicate and refined. We tolerate none of the Five Unseemly Sorrows
anywhere within our borders, but certainly not here at court."



"Yeah, yeah," I said. It was much the same in half the new kingdoms we traveled to, these days. The
whole world was turning into the most frightful bunch of stuffed shirts. "Just pay up and we'll be on our