"Kerr, Katharine - Westlands 02 - A Time Of War v1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

Jahdo heard stumblings and cursings, but he kept walking.
СStop!Т MeerТs anguish floated after him. СWait! IТll tell you, then.Т
Jahdo stopped and turned round, but he hesitated. In the last of the light he could just see the bardТs silhouette, flailing round with his stick as he tried to follow over the rocks and hummocks. He moved remarkably well, considering, but he was angling away fast from the path that Jahdo had actually taken. HeТll die out here without me, Jahdo thought.
СMeer, stop! IТm coming back.Т
The bard sobbed once in relief and held still. Jahdo led him back to their camp, sat Meer down on a log, then busied himself with striking sparks from his flint and steel until the readied tinder at last caught. Jahdo blew the spark into a flame, fed in a little dried grass, then some twigs, and at last pieces of broken branch. As the light leapt and spread he moved back from the unwelcome heat. Meer was sitting with his head between his hands, his face turned as if he were staring into the fire. Seeing him look so defeated brought Jahdo a strange insight: never before had he argued with, much less bested, a grown man, and rather than exulting, he was frightened. Yet he refused to back down.
СWell, tell me now. Why are you going east?Т
СItТs a long and bitter story, but youТre right enough that you should hear it. Pay attention, though, because I can only bear to repeat it this once.Т Meer cleared his throat several times before he went on. СI have an elder brother who became a powerful razkan, what youТd call a captain in your tongue, I suppose, the man who leads a group of warriors. And what with his raiding and then the legitimate battles between our various cities, he became famous, gathering many a free-born warrior round him, as well as the usual slave soldiers he bought with all his booty.Т
СHold a moment. Slave soldiers? How can you give a slave weapons and make them fight?Т
СTheyТve been bred and born among the Gel daТThae, and they know that if they fight well, theyТll be set free.Т
СBut still, I donТt understand. You think theyТd just kill this razkan fellow and run away.Т
СRun to what? The wilderness? They know the civic authorities would hunt them down, and the gods wouldnТt help them the way they helped your people escape, because theyТd be rebels and traitors.Т
СThe gods helped us?Т
СOf course they did. They sent their own children to save and succour you, out on the grasslands to the south.Т
СI never did hear that before. I heard that it was sonic people who raised horses or suchlike. Why did the gods help us?Т
СNow here!Т Meer spoke with some asperity. СDo you want me to finish this tale or not? Fewer questions, if you please.Т
СI be sorry.Т
СVery well, then. Now, as I say, my brother, Thavrae his name is, his warriorТs name, I mean, though Svar was the name our mother gave him. Ah alas, woe betide the day she birthed him, and woe betide that his kin and clan have lived to see his infamy!Т
СWhatТs he been doing?Т
СWhoring after strange gods. Gods? Did I say gods? One of the three hundred sixty-four kinds of demon, more like! False gods, anyway. TheyТre supposed to be new gods. Now I ask you. If a god wasnТt around to help make the world, what kind of a god can she be? Gods donТt just pop up all of a sudden like, out of nowhere, appearing at your table like some unmarried uncle in search of a dinner!Т
Jahdo giggled.
СJust so.Т Meer nodded firmly. СBut for some years now these false prophets have been coming round, preaching these new gods to anyone stupid enough to listen. These so-called seers come from the wild tribes of the far north, where the demons have been appearing and "working marvels, or so they say. AlshandraТs the name they mention most, a powerful goddess of war, or so they call her.Т
СYour people, theyТd be liking her, then.Т
СJust so. But most of these prophets are gone now. Some got themselves caught and strangled in the public square by the authorities, and the rest havenТt been seen for some while. TheyТve turned sensible, if you take my meaning, but a few fools have listened to them. And my brother, my own blood kin, little Svar as IТll always think of him, heТs one of them, claiming allegiance to this Alshandra creature. It broke my motherТs heart.Т
СIТll wager it did. That be too bad, Meer, really tis so.Т Jahdo was trying to imagine what the mother of a man such as Meer would be like - even more formidable than his own mother, he supposed. СI guess she could talk no sense into him, huh?Т
СNo one could make him listen to reason, no one, not our mother, not our aunts, not our uncles. But anyway, some weeks ago Thavrae led his men out east.Т
СWhy?Т
СWell, partly to spare our city outright war between his warband and that of his rivals. He did listen to our mother about that, when she begged him to take his men away before citizen slaughtered citizen in the streets. The authorities wanted to strangle him for blasphemy, you sec, but you donТt just arrest a razkan when heТs got his warband round him.Т
СThen he does have some honour left.Т
СSome, truly, though a poor comfort to our mother it is.Т
СWait a moment. You said these demons live in the north, right? Why did Thavrae head east?Т
СIТm coming to that part. Hush. Apparently heТd received an omen from the gods, sending him to fetch a particular thing from the lands of the Slavers.Т
СWhat was it?Т
СHow would I know? But I was sent to find him and beg him to come home.Т
СSent by your mother?Т
СJust so.Т
СDo you think you - I mean we Ч can find him?Т
СI donТt know.Т Meer sighed, running both hands through his tangled mane of hair. СBy now he and his men should have found whatever this mysterious object is and be returning. I hope weТll meet them on the road back.Т
СWhat road? We donТt even know where weТre going.Т
СTrue.Т
СThen how do you think weТll ever find him?Т
СIf I can get within a reasonable distance, the brother bond will guide us.Т
СThe what?Т
СThe brother bond.Т Meer hesitated for a long time. СNow, thatТs one thing I can never explain to you, Jahdo, even if you were to walk away again and leave me here to starve. ItТs a magick, and some magicks are Gel daТThae. They cannot be shared. In the temple we swear holy vows.Т
СWell, all right, then. My mam does always say that if you swear a thing, itТs needful for you to do it. But I still donТt see how weТre going to find him. What if he goes north and we go south or somewhat like that?Т
СIt might happen, truly. But a motherТs charge is a sacred charge, and I must travel and try.Т
Jahdo hesitated, considering.
СBe you sure this is all youТre doing? I did hear you talking to Verrarc back home, Councilman Verrarc I mean, and you were talking about your mother and stuff, but I did get this strange feeling. You werenТt telling him everything, were you?Т
Meer laughed.
СI figured I was choosing the cleverest lad in town, and I was right. But actually, I wasnТt lying. I was merely editing. I didnТt want to go into detail. There is somewhat about Councilman Verrarc that creeps my flesh. I hear things in his voice, somehow.Т
СThings?Т