"Bennett, Marcia J - Ni-Lach 03 - Beyond the Draak's Teeth UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bennett Marcia J)

Gringers moved out of the doorway between the main room and the bedroom. "He means that once Laran is sure you are a full-fledged draak singer, he'll take you from Garv and sell you to one of the Reach lords for enough money to make everyone in Fisherman's Landing rich for a year."
Theon frowned. "Of course, Laran will make sure that half of the selling price goes into his own pocket. Garv would be lucky if he ended up with his original buying price."
Theon glanced at Gringers. "We intend to see that that doesn't happen."
Garv, who had been listening quietly, reached over and patted Bhaldavin's leg. "Don't worry, Little Fish. Garv won't let Laran take you away."
"Theon, why don't we leave right now?" Gringers suggested. "Before Laran moves against us."
"Have you looked outside lately?" Theon asked. "Step to the door and take a peek. There are two men sitting on the porch across the street and another two stationed down near the stockade. We are going nowhere without Laran knowing."
'Then there's no sense in waiting, is there? Tonight?" Gringers raised one eyebrow in question.
"I think so," Theon agreed. "If we wait any longer, I'm afraid we'll lose our little fish to Laran's dung-eating servants!"
Theon glanced at Bhaldavin to see if he was following
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the conversation. Bhaldavin met his glance with a calmness that belied the growing realization that being Garv's pet or Laran's property was all one and the same to him.
Theon dropped onto the stool next to the bed. "This is probably all confusing to you, isn't it, Little Fish? Too much is happening too fast for you to understand it all. Well, don't worry, we'll take good care of you. If anythingЧ"
"Don't talk down to him, Theon," Gringers said sternly. "He understands what's happening. Don't you, Little Fish?"
Coldness settled in Bhaldavin's stomach. It was almost as if the man could reach into his mind and know his thoughts. He turned from Gringers to Theon; he felt more comfortable talking to the smaller man.
Bhaldavin had learned much since first morning light, for Theon had answered his questions freely, but there was one subject Theon had brushed over, and now Bhaldavin wanted to know more. His plans for escape made it imperative that he know what these men were planning to do with him and whether or not there were any Ni in the area to whom he could go for help.
"You spoke twice of needing a draak singer," he began. "Why?"
"Gringers and I are planning a trip somewhere and we need a draak singer to ensure we get there safely."
"There are no other draak singers in this area?"
"Not anymore. The Ni left the Reaches shortly after the Sarissa declared open season on the Ni."
"Open season?" The trader term was new to Bhaldavin.
"Hunt to kill." Theon hurried on when he saw the effect his words had on Bhaldavin. "Not that any of that was done here! The Sarissa don't rule the ReachesЧnot yet, anyway. Their war with your people was none of our doing. In fact, it all happened so fast that by the time we heard about it, it was almost over. *Х
MARCIA J, BENNETT
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"The disappearance of the Ni-lach is referred to as the Leaving," Theon continued. "It was as if someone among the Ni suddenly gave the order for everyone to abandon home and work and leave the area. Some of us were aware of the smaller numbers of Ni seen in town each day, but it wasn't until the Draak Watch failed to show for work one morning that anyone grew worried. By then it was too late to do anything to stop the Ni, not that we could've done much had we tried."
"What do you mean?"
"Most of the Ni left during darkness. Once into the heavily forested lands beyond the river holdings, they simply vanished. A few men did try to follow them, but no one had any luck. Several men even failed to return. The mass exodus lasted about a week, if I remember right. Some claimed that the Ni left the Reaches because they feared the Sarissa War would grow to include them, but whoever started that rumor was a fool, because the Ni were all gone by the time we first heard about the war. There simply was no way they could've known what was happening in Annaroth before we did."
Bhaldavin remained silent. If Theon had never heard of Ni-lach Seekers, he was not about to offer any information on the subject.
Ni-lach Seekers were gifted with the ability to move from place to place through the power of their fire stones, shards of the great crystal called the Tamorlee. Teachers and travelers, they gave freely of their knowledge to any who asked, but their most important task was the recording of all they discovered, to augment the wisdom held within the Tamorlee so that future generations could use it for growth. Knowledge feeding knowledge until there was a perfect understanding of lifeЧthat was the one true law of the Ni.
Bhaldavin's grandfather had been a Seeker, and after his death the fire stone he had carried was given to his son to keep until another in their family was Seeker-born.
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Bhaldavin's father had hoped that one of his sons would turn out to be a Seeker, but Bhaldavin had not yet reached the age of testing when the Sarissa War broke out.
Bhaldavin was startled from his thoughts by Gringers.
"Was there a Draak Watch where you came from, Bhaldavin?"
"There is a Draak Watch wherever there are Ni. It means our survival."
"And ours," Theon agreed. "Without the Watch we have become easy prey for draak. We of the Reaches were the first to realize what it was going to mean to live without the Watch: crops overrun, fences and ponds destroyed, workers killed or frightened off. The Draak Watch had become such a part of our lives that no one could remember a time when they weren't there. We've tried to fight back, to build defenses against the draak, but it hasn't been easy. The Reach lords have lost a lot of valuable cropland because there's simply too much territory to protect by fire watch alone. The Sarissa were fools to make war on the Ni, no matter their reasoning!
"Several of the Reach lords did manage to hang on to a few of the Watch by using bribery and coercion, but the Green Ones didn't last very long. Within a year all of them had either died or escaped. Since the Leaving there has been a standing order that any sighting of Ni within the Reaches be reported immediately to the Reach Lords Council at Cambrian. At one time it was hoped that some of your people would return, but it was a false hope. A few, like yourself, did turn up in the slave markets in Port Cestar, but all attempt to work with them failed."
"Work with them?" Bhaldavin asked.
"Breeding programs. It was Lord Parrel's idea, I believe." Theon shrugged. "He said it would be just like raising gensvolf cubs. Capture the adults, breed them, and then train the young. Except it didn't work. The Ni parents-to-be weren't very cooperative; some committed suicide rather than enslave themselves and their unborn,"
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Bhaldavin turned his face to the wall, shocked. Words his father had once spoken came back to him.
What man doesn't own, he will try to buy. What he can't buy, he takes. It's their way, my son. Man is like an unwelcome weed in the forest; he cannot be destroyed by pulling him up and throwing him away, because, like all weeds, he will just take root somewhere else. So we must learn to live with him. I sometimes think of man as tangle vine, which is deadly to the unwary, but useful to those who know how to tame its coils.
But it is they who sought to tame us, Father, Bhaldavin thought, and those who would not be tamed were killed. Oh, Father, what am I to do?
Laran arrived in the afternoon. He was a big man, much like Garv in stature and coloring, but where Garv was slow-witted, Laran was quick, his dark eyes alive with schemes.
The man was full of questions, and he didn't like it when Bhaldavin refused to answer. Theon, who was present during Laran's visit, made excuses for Bhaldavin's silenceЧperhaps the blow to the head the day before, or the shock of waking to a strange world, or the feeling of being lost among strangers.
Laran cut Theon off with a wave of his hand. "Enough! He might be frightened and disoriented, but from what Chagg said, he did speakЧand I want to hear him. Now!"
Theon glanced at Bhaldavin and gave an almost imperceptible nod. Laran didn't miss that byplay. He looked down at Bhaldavin, one eyebrow cocked. "Well? What about it? Can you talk?"
"Yes," Bhaldavin answered.