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A Stroke Of Midnight :: Гамильтон Лорел
Страница: 148 из 293We are, in a way, nature personified. We are not humans, no matter how our form may ape them. We are something else, and too many of us have forgotten that.”
“How dare you lecture us on what the sidhe are, when you stand as the most human of us all, the most lesser of us all.”
I stood up, stretching my legs, which were a little stiff from holding the weight of Galen’s upper body. “When I was a child I would have given anything to be one of the tall slender sidhe, but as I have grown into adulthood I value more and more my mixed heritage. I value my brownie blood, my human blood, not just the sidhe blood that runs in my veins.
“Aisling, take off your shirt. If I am too mortal to look upon your chest, then I am too mortal to be your queen. Let Hafwyn see which of you is the more injured so one of you may be healed.”
He began to argue.
“I am Princess of Flesh and Blood, daughter of Essus, and I will be queen. You will do as I order. Adair loses blood while you act like some bashful maiden.”
Even through the veil I could tell that I’d pricked his pride, and all males are alike when it comes to that. He threw his cloak to the ground and jerked his tunic over his head in one quick motion. He didn’t wait for me to tell him to take off his underthings. He simply stripped them over his head, hesitating only at his face, so he could be sure of keeping his veil in place. I didn’t argue the veil; his face had once bespelled goddesses and sidhe alike.
It wasn’t his chest that made me stare, though it was a very nice chest, with wide shoulders and a lovely stomach except for the cut that traced blood from his waist to his ribs. What made me stare was his skin, which looked as if it had been sprinkled with gold dust, shining and sparkling in the light. In sunlight he would dazzle the eye. I’d seen his nude back in the midst of all the other guards when the queen had been driven mad by a magical poisoning. She had ordered them all to strip and they’d done it for fear of her.
“It is as I have feared,” he said.
I shook my head. “I have seen you nude, Aisling, unless there is someone else with gold dust on their skin.”
“When she saved us,” Adair said, “you were on the floor.”
Aisling shivered, though whether from Hafwyn’s hands on his wound or the memory of what the queen had almost done I wasn’t sure. “I had forgotten.”
“Not so mortal, after all,” Galen said from where he’d moved to sit against the wall.
“How dare you lecture us on what the sidhe are, when you stand as the most human of us all, the most lesser of us all.”
I stood up, stretching my legs, which were a little stiff from holding the weight of Galen’s upper body. “When I was a child I would have given anything to be one of the tall slender sidhe, but as I have grown into adulthood I value more and more my mixed heritage. I value my brownie blood, my human blood, not just the sidhe blood that runs in my veins.
“Aisling, take off your shirt. If I am too mortal to look upon your chest, then I am too mortal to be your queen. Let Hafwyn see which of you is the more injured so one of you may be healed.”
He began to argue.
“I am Princess of Flesh and Blood, daughter of Essus, and I will be queen. You will do as I order. Adair loses blood while you act like some bashful maiden.”
Even through the veil I could tell that I’d pricked his pride, and all males are alike when it comes to that. He threw his cloak to the ground and jerked his tunic over his head in one quick motion. He didn’t wait for me to tell him to take off his underthings. He simply stripped them over his head, hesitating only at his face, so he could be sure of keeping his veil in place. I didn’t argue the veil; his face had once bespelled goddesses and sidhe alike.
It wasn’t his chest that made me stare, though it was a very nice chest, with wide shoulders and a lovely stomach except for the cut that traced blood from his waist to his ribs. What made me stare was his skin, which looked as if it had been sprinkled with gold dust, shining and sparkling in the light. In sunlight he would dazzle the eye. I’d seen his nude back in the midst of all the other guards when the queen had been driven mad by a magical poisoning. She had ordered them all to strip and they’d done it for fear of her.
“It is as I have feared,” he said.
I shook my head. “I have seen you nude, Aisling, unless there is someone else with gold dust on their skin.”
“When she saved us,” Adair said, “you were on the floor.”
Aisling shivered, though whether from Hafwyn’s hands on his wound or the memory of what the queen had almost done I wasn’t sure. “I had forgotten.”
“Not so mortal, after all,” Galen said from where he’d moved to sit against the wall.