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

Garv looked up from his plate. "Eat, Little Fish. It's good."
Bhaldavin picked up the plate and set it on the bed. Garv hadn't supplied him with any kind of eating implement, so he stirred the mixture with a finger and tasted it. It was salty but edible. He fingered all the nabob out of the gravy, then lifted the plate and drank the remains.
Garv continued to talk, not once pausing to give Bhaldavin time to answer a question. When he finished eating, he came and took Bhaldavin's bowl, rinsed it along with his own, and set both on the hearth to dry. Then he returned and patted Bhaldavin on the shoulder.
"Little Fish ready to go now?"
Bhaldavin moved out from under Garv's hand, but the big man seemed not to notice as he bent to unfasten Bhaldavin's ankle rope. Garv coiled the rope in one hand, then turned to pick up his fishing net and pole.
Garv's cabin was set off by itself in a patch of overgrown bushes only a few paces from a tall stockade wall. Garv led Bhaldavin along a narrow dirt path on the inside of the wall until they came to a small gate that was guarded by a single man.
"All quiet today, Garv," the man said as Garv approached. "No draak in the area."
Garv nodded and walked on, strangely quiet.
Bhaldavin looked at the gate guard as he passed, and for a moment their glances locked. Was it pity Bhaldavin saw in the man's face? Or disgust? He couldn't tell.
A fifteen-minute walk brought Garv and Bhaldavin to a large backwater fed by the nearby river. Garv led Bhaldavin along the riverbank, then cut to the right down a well-worn path overhung with veil vine draped from tree to tree. When they reached the edge of the water, Garv tied the free end of Bhaldavin's rope to a loop in his belt and waved him back away from the water. ~,
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"Little Fish rests today. Garv doesn't want you getting sick again. You can help Garv fish tomorrow."
As Garv settled down with his pole, Bhaldavin moved as far away from the man as the rope would allow and walked back and forth in what appeared to be aimless wandering, but his eyes were busy searching the ground for something he could use either as a weapon or a means of freeing himself from the rope.
Finally he found a small rock that had a sharp edge. Sitting down, he turned away from Garv and began to work on the rope. But the draakhide was tough and resisted such a poor cutting edge.
Giving up, he threw the rock into the water. He was frustrated and growing impatient.
Garv turned and glared at him. "Garv can't catch any fish if you chase them all away. Throw another rock, and I will tie you up."
For a few minutes Bhaldavin actually contemplated an attack on the large man, but Garv seemed to be extraordinarily alert, turning to check on his captive whenever Bhaldavin moved.
Deciding to try one more tack, Bhaldavin went to the edge of the water and sat for a while, hoping that the water, as it soaked through the draakhide, would loosen the knot. It didn't. Glaring at the offensive knot, he moved back from the water's edge and lay down, his back to Garv. Anger and self-pity brought a lump to his throat. He hated himself at that moment, his crippled body, his ineffectiveness. He felt awkward and clumsy, and he knew that it would take him a long time to feel at home with his new body.
By late afternoon Garv had caught twelve large stoa and seven good-sized brekel. Satisfied with his day's labor, he put his catch in his net bag and called Bhaldavin from the shallows.
Bhaldavin was wading knee-deep in the water and pulling up handfuls of a bottom weed called seena. The dark
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green leafy fronds were edible raw, and Bhaldavin was hungry. Stuffing several pieces in his mouth, he gathered another handful, but waded ashore as Garv began to coil the ankle rope.
Garv met him at the edge of the water. "What you want that for?" He slapped at Bhaldavin's hand, trying to make him drop the grass. "Throw it away. It's no good."
Bhaldavin turned to the side and stepped back, trying to protect his small gather. Suddenly he came up against the rope and fell, half-in, half-out of the water. He sat up and flicked water from his face.
Garv stood looking down at him, frowning; then he shrugged. "Little Fish wants seaweed, he can have it. Come. Stand up! It's time to go now."
Garv pulled Bhaldavin to his feet and turned him back toward the path leading to the stockade. As they walked, Garv spoke about the fishing that day, his plans for tomorrow, and the upcoming trade fair to be held the next month. His words spilled out in an unending waterfall of sound. Bhaldavin wondered if the man ever stopped talking.
The guard at the gate had been changed. The new man nodded to Garv and asked how the fishing had gone.
Garv just nodded and walked on, eyes straight ahead, his hand on the back of Bhaldavin's neck, guiding him down the pathway they had walked that morning.
Bhaldavm glanced up, wondering at Garv's silence when confronted by other men.
When they reached the cabin, Garv took Bhaldavin inside and fastened the end of the rope to his bedpost; then he took a sharp knife from a shelf high on the wall and left to clean the fish.
Bhaldavin dropped his gather of grass at the foot of the bed and looked out through the open doorway. Garv was working right outside the door, where he could keep an eye on the room and its occupant.
Bhaldavin glanced quickly around the room, searching
MARCIA J. BENNETT ig
for something with which to cut the rope, but found nothing.
He turned and glanced out through the doorway, deciding to bide his time. Escape should not prove too difficult, he thought, if I plan properly. His failure to escape the night before had been his own fault. He had been in too much of a hurry and had not thought things out.
He sat down on the floor and began to pull the grass apart so it could dry. As he worked, he tried to recall something of the past few years, anything that would give him a hint as to where he was and how long he had been Garv's little fish.
His loss of memory worried him. Why, if escape looked so easy, hadn't he attempted it before? Perhaps he had, he thought. Why couldn't he remember?
He was startled from his thoughts by the door banging closed behind him. He turned as Garv crossed the floor and set the gutted fish on a large wood platter on the table.
Garv came over to inspect the grass Bhaldavin had spread in the comer. "What does Little Fish want with smelly grass?"
Bhaldavin took a small piece of grass and put it into his mouth.
Garv's dark eyebrows lifted in surprise as Bhaldavin chewed on the grass. "Little Fish likes to eat seaweed?"
The man went to a knee beside Bhaldavin and took some of the grass, sniffed it, and put it into his mouth. He spat it out seconds later.
"Garv doesn't like your seaweed, Little Fish. You want it, you can eat it, but don't make yourself sick."
Rising, Garv left Bhaldavin and went to start a fire in the hearth, which filled a good portion of one wall of the cabin. The other walls were made of solid oak logs.
Bhaldavin watched Garv for a few seconds, then returned to his own work, lifting and separating the grass to speed the drying process. He listened to Garv move
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around the room behind him, but ignored the man's muttering, knowing now that he wasn't expected to answer.