alex_hohulya: переводы

→“He’s very welcome to do so,” Zero said, smiling derisively. “It would be pleasant to be able to come to grips with him so easily.”

→“Athelas says you’re an heirling, too. What if the murderer really is going for heirlings and decides to have a pot shot at you?”

→“Reckon that other possibility has turned its attention to other heirlings?” I asked.

→“I would like to see his basis for thinking so,” Zero said. “I’ve considered it, Pet; I even still consider it now. But it was unlikely, and I turned most of my attention to other possibilities.”

→“Technically, they can,” he said. “Logistically, it’s highly unlikely. I was born into a powerful family, and my mother was pregnant with me during the purge that the current king made. Half-humans are routinely slaughtered without question Behind at the best of times. Full humans without magic to protect themselves, and without even a basic knowledge of the worlds Between and Behind? How could they survive?”

→“And back then you didn’t seem to be worried about being human.”

→“Athelas said that humans can be heirlings, too, though.”

→“It seems more likely now,” said Zero, a crease forming between his brows. Instead of taking to Between, he used the gate, and I followed. “But there are still too many things that don’t add up: nothing leads back to the king that I can find. In fact, until I—until recently I wouldn’t have thought there were signs of the cycle starting again. He wouldn’t have had the knowledge that it was time to look again. More, there are an even number of humans and Behindkind dying.”

→I looked curiously at him, wondering what made this the safer topic for discussion, and asked, “Is that what you reckon is happening again? With this bloke that’s going around murdering people, I mean? He’s working for the king to get rid of potential heirlings before the Trial wotsit can start?”

→“The incumbent king,” Zero said, continuing on with his previous subject as if I hadn’t spoken, “deciding that he didn’t want the cycle to change the next time it began to occur, went down in Behind history by slaughtering every heirling as it appeared, along with every human-Behindkind child within reach.”

→Zero’s eyes flicked back to me. “I beg your pardon?”

→“Well, maybe it’s humans the king thinks are heirlings?”

→“How come you’re testing me?” I asked suspiciously, as the other two went back into the house. Zero had brought me here, not because he needed me, but because he wanted to see if I saw something that I shouldn’t be able to see. I wanted to know why.

→“Both of you see what you can make of the scene and the bodies,” Zero said to Athelas and JinYeong. “I’ll take the pet home.”

→“He was also the first to slaughter all the contenders in the Trials,” said Athelas. “When he was still an heirling, of course. It had been attempted before, but usually one or two escape and live somewhere out of reach. That was the first time every one of them died but the new king.”

→“It’s all right to laugh sometimes,” I told him. “You don’t have to choke on it.”

→Zero coughed a bit, and I grinned at him, feeling slightly better myself.

→“Sounds like a nice bloke. I can see why he gets along with Zero’s father.”

→“Someone told me about the last one,” I said. “The old king decided he didn’t want to give up his throne, so he killed all the contenders.”

→“No,” said Zero. “It’s a massacre. It didn’t…it wasn’t always like that, though it had the potential. It was only the last two series that took a turn for the worst.”