"Gordon R. Dickson - Dragon Knight 06 - The Dragon and the Djinn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

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CHAPTER ONE

For six days and nights the wind blew steadily out of the northwest; so that the servants huddled in their
quarters, wrapped in everything warm they owned, and thought they heard voices of dark prophesies in
the wind. It blew until it blew steep drifts of snow against the great doors in the curtain wall of the castle;
so that men had to be lowered by rope from the battlements to shovel it away to get the doors open.
Finally it ceased; and there was a day of perfect quietness, terrible coldness and blue sky. Then the wind
began again, worse than before, this time from the southeast; and on the second day it blew Sir Brian
Neville-Smythe in through the now-open doors of Malencontri.

The blacksmith and one of the men-at-arms from the gate led Brian, still on his horse, across the
courtyard to the entrance to the Great Hall and helped him (stiffly) down from his horse, helped beat the
ice off his outer garments, where it clung thickly to those parts of his over-robe that covered armor
underneath; and the man-at-arms took the horse off to the warm stables. The blacksmith, since he clearly
outranked an ordinary man-at-arms, went in with Sir Brian to announce him.

But the blacksmith never got the chance. Because once they were within the Hall they saw Lady Angela
Eckert, wife to Sir James Eckert, Lord of Malencontri and all its lands, taking her mid-day meal there
and she, in the same moment, recognized the visitor.

тАЬBrian!тАЭ she called from the far end of the long hall. тАЬWhere did you come from?тАЭ

тАЬOutside,тАЭ said Brian, who was a literal-minded person.

He advanced on the high table, set on a platform raised above the hall floor and looking down the two
long tables at right angles before it, and stretching away toward Brian, to accommodate diners of lesser
rank-but empty at the moment Angie was lunching alone, but in all proper state.

тАЬI can see that,тАЭ said Angie, lowering her voice as he came closer. тАЬBut where did you start from?тАЭ

тАЬFrom Castle Smythe. My home,тАЭ replied Brian, with a touch of impatience; for where else would he be
coming from at this, the end of January after a heavy winter storm?

The impatience was only momentary, however, for he was already eyeing the food and drink before
Angie on the high table. To Brian, what Angie-who, like her husband, Jim, had been an involuntary
importee from the twentieth century to this fourteenth-century world, some three years before-thought of
as lunch time, was dinner time. It was the main meal of his day; and he had had nothing since breakfast,
shortly after dawn on this icy morning.

тАЬWell, come sit down, and have something to eat and drink,тАЭ said Angie. тАЬYou must be frozen to the
bone.тАЭ

тАЬHah!тАЭ said Brian, his eyes lighting up at the invitation-expected though it was.