(eng) Mercedes Lackey - Diana Tregarde 02 by Children of the Night

Author:Children of the Night [Night, Children of the]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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EIGHT

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Di opened the useless little corner cabinet above the sink and contemplated her brand new bottle of Scotch for a moment with her fingers resting on the handle. Bought just this afternoon, it stood in splendid isolation on the otherwise empty middle shelf, replacing the one she’d finished in two bouts of—

Self-pitying indulgence. There’s no other term for it. And both inside of a week.

She quietly closed the cabinet, leaving the bottle where it was.

I don’t need it, and I’ve been hitting on it far too often. It doesn’t solve the problems, it doesn’t make them go away—all it does is make me forget about them. Temporarily. And when I’m drunk on my butt, I’m not doing anything productive about problems or mundania. It isn’t helping, and it might be hurting.

She filled the kettle, put on hot water for tea, and gave thought to what she should do with the rest of the evening. When the water was boiling, she picked out some bags of Red Zinger, put them to steep in the hand-thrown pot Lenny had given her, and carried the pot out to her desk. She looked at the pitifully small pile of manuscript pages, then sat herself down at her desk, and resolutely turned back to the tribulations of the lovely, languishing, and thrice-ravished Sarah.

Tomorrow is Sunday, which means I can sleep late. Dave—the wound is raw. I know that. I’m going to have to figure out why and what to do about it. I can’t do anything about the soul-eater tonight. I don’t know anything more about it now than I did before, I only know what it isn’t. I’m not going to go play bait out on the street for it. The only thing I can think of doing is something involving group magic—and I’m not sure about trying that. I want to think hard about running a group-magic Circle on it and weigh all the factors, pro and con, before I even broach the idea to Len. So—let’s do something about paying the rent.

Besides, work is supposed to be the best cure for the jitters. That’s what Granny always told me, anyway.

All right, Sarah. Let’s see if we can get you out of the Captain’s cabin and into a little more trouble…

Di bent over the typewriter, cup of hot tea at hand, pot of tea on the warming plate beside her. Sarah was disposed to cooperate. Within an hour, Di was humming while she typed. Within two, she knew she was on a roll. By midnight the tea was gone, and Sarah was showing sign of a backbone. By three a.m. the Captain had a sense of humor. Not precisely within the outline, but if Di tweaked it gently, she doubted anyone would notice. And it sure made working with those two characters a lot easier.

By five she could hardly keep her eyes open, but the first mate had just begun his mutiny plans and she wanted to get that set up properly before she called it a night.

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