"Cook, Glen - The Black Company 09 - Water Sleeps" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cook Glen)

УWeТll be street orphans.Ф Though that had its risks, too. We could get caught by a press gang and forced into MogabaТs army. His soldiers, these days, are little better than slaves, subject to a savage discipline. Many are petty criminals given an option of rough justice or enlistment. The rest are children of poverty with nowhere else to go. Which was the standard of professional armies men like Murgen saw in the far north, long before my time.

УWhy do you worry so much about disguises?Ф

УIf we never show the same face twice, our enemies canТt possibly know who theyТre looking for. DonТt ever underestimate them. Especially not the Protector. SheТs outwitted death itself more than once.Ф

Tobo was not prepared to believe that or much else of our exotic history. Though not as bad as most, he was going through that stage where he knew everything worth knowing and nothing his elders saidЧparticularly if it bore any vaguely educational hueЧwas worth hearing. He could not help that. It went with the age.

And I was my age and could not help saying things I knew would do no good. УItТs in the Annals. Your father and the Captain didnТt make up stories.Ф

He did not want to believe that, either. I did not pursue it. Each of us must learn to respect the Annals in our own way, in our own time. The CompanyТs diminished circumstance makes it difficult for anyone to grasp tradition. Only two Old Crew brothers both survived SoulcatcherТs trap on the stone plain and the Kiaulune wars afterward. Goblin and One-Eye are haplessly inept at transmitting the Company mystique. One-Eye is too lazy and Goblin too inarticulate. And I was still practically an apprentice when the Old Crew ventured onto the plain in the CaptainТs quest for Khatovar. Which he did not find. Not the Khatovar he was looking for, anyway.

I am amazed. Before long I will be a twenty-year veteran. I was barely fourteen when Bucket took me under his wing . . . But I was never like Tobo. At fourteen I was already ancient in pain. For years after Bucket rescued me, I grew younger . . . УWhat?Ф

УI asked why you look so angry all of a sudden.Ф

УI was remembering when I was fourteen.Ф

УGirls have it so easyЧФ He shut up. His face drained. His northern ancestry became apparent. He was an arrogant and spoiled little puke but he did have brains enough to recognize it when he stepped into a nest of poisonous snakes.

I told him what he knew, not what he did not. УWhen I was fourteen, the Company and Nyueng Bao were trapped in Jaicur. Dejagore, they call it here.Ф The rest does not matter anymore. The rest is safely in the past. УI almost never have nightmares now.Ф

Tobo had heard more than he ever wanted to about Jaicur already. His mother and grandmother and Uncle Doj had been there, too.



УGoblin says weТll be impressed by these buttons,Ф Tobo whispered. УThey wonТt just make spooky lights, theyТll prick somebodyТs conscience.Ф

УThatТll be unusual.Ф Conscience was a rare commodity on either side of our dispute.

УYou really knew my dad?Ф Tobo had heard stories all his life but lately wanted to know more. Murgen had begun to matter in a more than lip-service fashion.

I told him what I had told him before. УHe was my boss. He taught me to read and write. He was a good man.Ф I laughed weakly. УAs good a man as belonging to the Black Company let him be.Ф

Tobo stopped. He took a deep breath. He stared at a point in the dusk somewhere above my left shoulder. УWere you lovers?Ф

УNo, Tobo. No. Friends. Almost. But definitely not that. He didnТt know I was a woman till just before he left for the glittering plain. And I didnТt know he knew till I read his Annals. Nobody knew. They thought I was a cute runt who just never got any bigger. I let them think that. I felt safer as one of the guys.Ф

УOh.Ф

His tone was so neutral I had to wonder. УWhy did you even ask?Ф Surely he had no reason to believe I had behaved differently before he knew me.

He shrugged. УI just wondered.Ф

Something must have set him off. Possibly an УI wonder if . . . Ф from Goblin or One-Eye, say, while they were sampling some of their homemade elephant poison.

УI didnТt ask. Did you put the buttons behind the shadow show?Ф

УThatТs what I was told to do.Ф