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Now he was surprised. "Are they that attractive, then?" he asked,
his curiosity more than piqued.
"They are not precisely great beauties, although they are quite
handsome well, make that judgment for yourself." Bythis time they had reached
the door and now guarded of his former nursery. The guards stepped aside,
faces as expression-less as statues, and Lady Lydiell opened the door,
gesturing tohim to go in ahead.
He did so, feeling the faint tingle of a second "door" as hecrossed
the threshold that would prevent the women from crossing it until it was taken
down. That was usual enough inharems to keep them out of the Lady's Bower; it
was necessary here, to keep them from wandering and seeing things they
shouldn't.
The three women had clearly been told to await him, for theywere
standing in poses that were a little too contrived to be nat-ural. That was
when he understood what his mother had meant.
There could not possibly have been three women more strik-ingly
different. The first, tall, with pale gold hair and vivid blue eyes, had an
angular face and a figure as slender and willowy as any Elven lady, and a
far-away expression as if she lived en-tirely in a cloud of dreams. She had
posed herself beside a giantvase of flowers, musing on a single enormous
lily-blossom, herfrilled and lacy gown echoing the pastel colors of the
blooms.The second, a brunette with brown eyes full of passion, fulllips, and a
sensuous body, fairly radiated promises; she loungedagainst a pillar in a way
that thrust her bosom forward strain- ing the silk of her scarlet,
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form-fitting wrap and allowed herto watch him with a provocative, flirtatious,
sideways glance.The third had a tumble of flaming curls and merry green eyes,
a dancer's body of strength and agility clothed in a simple bluetunic that
left her legs bare, and the expression of a completely innocent child; she
looked up from the kitten she was playing with to smile at him with a face
full of laughter. It seemed that in these three, all the variety of an entire
harem was encom-passed. And only a statue could have failed to respond to
thesilent invitations each of them sent to him in her own way.
"You see?" Lady Lydiell said quietly, as the three sank to the ground
in deep curtsies. He glanced at her, and saw that she hada glint of mischief
in her own eyes. "Well, dearest, is it safe to leave you alone with them?"
He couldn't help it; he flushed but he covered it with ahalf-mocking
bow. "You're going to have to if I'm to give them convincing memories," he
told her, causingher to blush. It was with a bit of satisfaction that he bowed
her out, and turned to face his new "acquisitions."
He was trying to think of something to say when they de- scended on
him as a body and made speech irrelevant, at least for that moment, and the
many that followed.
Sergeant Gel followed Lord Tenebrinth into the Old Tower, hismood not
precisely apprehensive, but tinged with that emotion. Lady Lydiell rarely
spoke to him face-to-face, and this was thefirst time that she had ever
required him to attend her in her pri-vate office.
He had never been inside the Old Tower; few humans had,only the one
or two required to clean Lydiell's, and Tene-brinth's, offices. One of the
lords, or the lady herself, would have to have brought him personally; there
was no other way for him to use the only means of access, which was a bizarre
transparent tube. He couldn't imagine how he was supposed to climb it and
entered it with Tenebrinth rather dubiously onlyto suppress a start as the
floor beneath him began to rise. It gave him a queasy sensation, despite his
familiarity with magic, toride this contraption. It just didn't seem...
natural. Round,empty room after room passed him or rather, he passed them as
he rose with no real sensation of movement.
He began to wonder if he would ever reach the top, when fi-nally one
of the rooms showed signs of occupation as did thenext after that and then the
platform slowed and came to astop at the topmost level.
Lydiell's office, at the top of the tower, had a dizzying and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]