Cast in Silence. Michelle Sagara
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Название: Cast in Silence

Автор: Michelle Sagara

Издательство: HarperCollins

Жанр: Современная зарубежная литература

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isbn: 9781408976081

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СКАЧАТЬ bet when you were young, you had to personally dig your own wells just to get water, too,” Kaylin said, under her breath.

      Teela, who appeared to be reading the letter, said, “I heard that.” She looked up, handed the letter to Tain, and said, “So, why exactly did Barren send you out of his fief?”

      She looked across the table; she could not look at Severn. But even not looking at him, she felt his presence as strongly as she had ever felt his absence. “He sent me,” she said quietly, “to kill the Hawklord.”

      CHAPTER 4

      Teela’s brows rose; the rest of her face seemed frozen. “He sent a thirteen-year-old human child to assassinate the Hawklord?”

      Kaylin nodded. She felt curiously numb, now that the words had left her mouth. She didn’t even feel the panicky need to claw them back, to make a joke of them. What did it matter, in the end? She could do whatever Barren wanted her to do, but if she did, she’d lose the Hawk anyway. If she didn’t?

      She’d lose it, as well.

      “Why?”

      “Why?”

      Teela frowned. “Pay attention, kitling. Why did he send a child to kill the Hawklord?”

      “I don’t know. I think he was trying to make a point.”

      Teela shrugged. She didn’t seem disappointed in Kaylin at all—but then again, she was Barrani. It wasn’t the good opinion or the approval of the Barrani Kaylin was afraid of losing. Hells, given the Barrani she might even rise a notch or two in their estimation. “This is what you’re afraid of? He sends in so-called proof of that, people will be laughing for months.”

      Kaylin, however, did not seem to find this as vastly humorous as Teela. Or Tain, judging by his smirk.

      Severn covered the back of one of her hands with his. He asked no questions, and he made no comment; he didn’t even seem particularly surprised.

      “Since you obviously failed to follow his orders—”

      “I didn’t.”

      “The Hawklord, last I saw, was still breathing.”

      “I didn’t fail to follow his orders,” was the quiet reply. “I just failed to succeed.”

      Tain chuckled. It was the only sound at the table. Even Teela, not normally the most sensitive of the Hawks—which, given she was Barrani, was an understatement—was somber. “You tried to kill the Hawklord.”

      Kaylin nodded. The lines of her face felt too frozen for expression; she wasn’t even sure what she looked like.

      “If the Hawklord already knows—and I can’t imagine he doesn’t, unless you were truly, truly terrible—you’ve little enough to fear.”

      Kaylin shook her head. “What I did in the fiefs, he won’t or can’t touch. What I did in the Tower? It counts. Marcus doesn’t know.” She lowered her face into her palms. Took a deep breath before she raised it. “I don’t want him to know,” she told them both.

      Teela glanced at Tain.

      “Don’t even think it.”

      “Think what?” Tain asked. Barrani did a horrible mimicry of innocent.

      “Barren’s a fieflord.”

      “He’s human, isn’t he?” Teela asked, with her usual disdain for enemies who were merely mortal.

      “I’m not sure that counts in the fiefs. Not when you’re the fieflord.”

      Severn touched her shoulder, and she turned to look at him. “How much different is Barren from Nightshade?”

      “The fief or the Lord?”

      “Either.”

      “The fief is—” Kaylin hesitated. “I’m not sure we would have noted the differences when we were kids. The people still live a really miserable life, the ferals still hunt. Barren doesn’t have public cages or hangings—he doesn’t need ’em. If you piss him off, he throws you to the ferals.”

      “The ferals aren’t that dependable.”

      Kaylin grimaced. “No. I don’t know if he knows when they’re coming or not. He’ll wait it out with his victim until he hears the howls. He cuts them,” she added, staring at the tabletop as she spoke. “And then he makes them run.

      “If they can survive until morning, they’re more or less free to go.”

      “Happen often?”

      “Pretty much never.” She started to rise, to shed the bench and its confinement, and his hand tightened.

      “Severn—I don’t want to talk about Barren. I’ll talk about anything—and I mean anything—else.”

      He met her gaze and held it, and she found it hard to look away. After a moment, she sat, heavily. He hadn’t forced her back down; her legs had given way. They waited in silence.

      Kaylin surrendered. “There’s a bit more foot-traffic coming over from the right side of the bridge. Barren’s got storehouses and brothels on the riverside. But his own place? It’s not at the heart of the fief. He lives near the edge.”

      “Which edge, Kaylin?”

      She shook her head. “Inner.”

      “You’ve been there.” It wasn’t a question.

      She looked away again. “Yeah. I’ve been there. It’s not like Nightshade’s Castle.”

      “It’s an old building, though?”

      “I don’t know if it’s any older than the rest of the buildings there. There is a building that’s kind of like the Castle, but it’s older and more decrepit. I don’t think anyone lives there.” She paused, and then added, “I don’t think anyone who tries survives.”

      “But Barren doesn’t.”

      “No.”

      “You’re going to meet him.”

      “No. I’m probably going to meet Morse. I don’t know where she’ll take me, or what she’ll tell me to do.” She looked across the table at Teela and Tain. She wanted to either drink a lot more, or have drunk a lot less. “I don’t want Marcus to know,” she whispered. “He thinks I’m a kit. He thinks I was a—a child—when the Hawklord dumped me on his division.”

      “Kitling,” Teela said, almost gently, “you were.”

      “He thinks I was a good child, turned thief because I had no other way of living in the streets of Nightshade.”

      “But you know better?”

      “Don’t СКАЧАТЬ