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along draught, timing his drink with the jolting of the carriage so he didn't
break his teeth on the neck of the flask, before hand-ing it to Gel.
"You'd think we'd get tired of this nonsense," Gel responded,leaning
back into the soft, dark brown velvet cushions afterhe'd corked the flask and
handed it back to young Lynder, Kyrt- ian's body-servant. "Your dear mother
keeps saying we're tooold to play at being soldiers, and sometimes I wonder if
she'sright, at least about me. Every time we come back from one of these
games, I ask myself if it isn't time to stop."
"You only think that as long as it takes for you to get yourwind
back." The young Elvenlord grinned at his companions,and Lynder chuckled. "And
mother has a different set of priori-ties from you and me. What do you expect
her to say? She's notjust a female, she's alady, and if she had her way we'd
all bedrifting around the estate in clouds of tranquil music, perfume, and
refinement. If it were up to her,you'd be cultivating roses,
andI'd be cultivating illusions and courting some fragile littlelily
of a maiden." He accepted the flask back and took another drink. "Not that you
need to apologize for having a knack withroses but I don't think you'd want to
spend your life amongthe flowers."
Gel rolled his eyes. "Gods forbid!" he exclaimed. "I'd die of
boredom in half a day! Roses are all right for a hobby, but notas a life's
work!"
"I'd prefer tending roses to being forced to spend my
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timecultivating a highborn maiden." Kyrtian laughed, the sound in- terrupted
oddly by the jouncing of the carriage. "At least you don't have to make
conversation with a flower, even if you dohave to be careful of the thorns.
It's easier to avoid thorns than try to keep a strange woman from seeing
things she shouldn't."
He tried to keep his tone light, but his laughter sounded a
bitstrained in his own ears. The subject of wives and heirs hadbeen much on
his mother's mind and tongue lately; hardly aday passed without her alluding
to it at least once. It was a sub-ject he was not easy with. He enjoyed his
life the way it was,and had no real wish to bring a stranger into his home.
"Ances- tors! I'd have to set up an entirely separate part of the estate
tokeep her properly secluded, and that would be as much of a bore as courting
her would be! I swear, if it weren't forbidden I'd wed a stout-hearted human
wench from right here."
Gel made a sour face. "At the least, we'd need the Dowager-House set
to rights just to confine the girl in, and somehow keep her mewed up there
indefinitely. If Tenebrinth, Selazianand Pelenal had daughters things would be
a great deal easieron all of us. You'd thinkone of your clients would have the
good sense to take care of that little problem for us!"
Kyrtian replied with complete seriousness. "I wish they had. Nothing
would have pleased me better to take one of them intomy family line; they're
all fine gentlemen. As it is well, some- day soon I suppose I'll have to
please Mother and go lookingamongst someone else's underlings for a wife.
Eventually I'llfind a maiden who's of sufficiently low rank to be too overawed
to notice my eccentricities."
"She'll have to overlook more than that," Gel warned him,
"Or you'll have her running back to her Papa with stories of how you
can't keep your slaves properly under your thumb."
Kyrtian felt compelled to give his mother's counters to those
arguments, which were the same that he himself had raised. "Elven maidens in
most households are kept close-confined, Mother says. And a maiden of low rank
should be dazzled by her new surroundings and too much in awe of Mother ever
to question things. We think that as long as her servants obeyedher, she'd
never know we do things differently here." He com- pressed his brows in a
little frown. "I'd have to make sure thatshe was never allowed to abuse them,
though ... and that could take some management."
Gel looked dubious, but only said, "If you'd just leave the
wife-hunting up to your Mother, you can be sure she won'tchoose someone we'll [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]