"John Dalmas - Yngling 1 - The Yngling" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dalmas John)

The sailor had been right. Nils
understood the question, but Danish speech was
different. He might indeed have trouble understanding
longer speech or making himself clear. At any rate,
he would speak slowly.
"No, only food," he said. "The ground will have
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to be my bed, or else I'll run out of money too soon."
The innkeeper eyed him narrowly and
leaned a stout forearm on the bar top. "You plan to
sleep in the open, if I take your meaning." He too
spoke slowly now. "In that case, more than your money
may disappear; your life's blood also. If you don't
know that, then the world is a dangerous place for
you."
"I have been robbed already today," Nils
said. "Are there so many thieves in Denmark?"
"There are thieves everywhere, and towns
have far more than their share. Are you the barbarian
who crushed the chest of Hans fra Sandvig with his
bare foot?"
"If that was his name."
"Well, that's a service worth a free
meal and a mug of beer with it," the innkeeper said,
and called a waiter. "Dreng, take this man to a
table. Give him a mutton pie and a mug of beer, and
when the mug is empty, fill it a second time."
Nils leaned over the pie with busy fork.
He was aware that someone stood near the table
watching him, and his eyes glanced upward
occasionally as he ate. The watcher, of middle
height, wore his yellow hair cropped close, and
unlike the townsmen, carried a short sword at his hip.
After a bit the man spoke. "You are a
Swede," he said, "the one who killed an armed thief
with only your foot." He spoke a hybrid
Swedish-Danish, from lips not at home with either,
accented with a crisp treatment of the consonants.
Nils straightened from his plate. "Yes,
I'm from Svealann. And you are no Dane either."
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"No, I'm a Finn-in our language we say
Suo-malainen."
"I've heard of the Finn land," Nils
said. "Svea fishermen are sometimes driven there by
storms. What do you want of me?"
"I am traveling alone in the world, and
it's healthier not to travel alone. You're traveling
too."
"I'm used to traveling alone," Nils