"Kerr,.Katharine.-.Deverry.03.-.Bristling.Wood" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

smiled at him, then widened the vision, switching his point of view
this way and that around the countryside to the limits of the scrying,
about two miles away from its focus. He saw sharp rocky hills,
covered with pine, and here and there among them small farms,
Most likely Rhodry was in the province of Cerrgonney, then, a good
five hundred miles away at the very least.

УItТs going to be a long summerТs riding, then, Ebaёy, lad,Ф he told
himself. УOn the other hand, it would be a wretched shame to leave
before the feastingТs over.Ф

Although it was cold up on the ramparts of Lord GwogyrТs dun,
Rhodry lingered there a few moments longer and looked out over
the Cerrgonney hills without truly seeing them. For a moment he
wondered if he were going daft, because it seemed heТd heard
someone talking to him though he was the only man on the walls.
The words had been indistinct, but someone had called him
brother and talked of giving him a gift. In irritation he tossed his
head and decided that it had only been some trick of the wind,
Since the only brother he knew of hated him with his very soul, it
was unlikely that heТd be giving him any gift but a dagger in the
back, and those wordsЧif words they wereЧhad sounded warm
and friendly.

Leaning back against the damp stone, he pulled his silver dagger
from his belt and looked at it while he idly thought of his elder
brother, Rhys, Gwerbret Aberwyn, who had sent him into exile
some years before. Although the dagger was a beautiful thing, as
sharp as steel but gleaming like silver, it was a mark of shame,
branding him a dishonored mercenary soldier who fought only for
coin, never for honor. It was time for him to wander down the long
road, as the silver daggers called their lives, Although heТd fought
well for Lord Gwogyr last fall, even taking a wound in his service, a
silver daggerТs welcome was a short one, and already the
chamberlain was grumbling about having to feed him and his
woman. Sheathing the dagger, he glanced up at the sky, cold but
clear. It was likely that the snows were long past.

УTomorrow weТll ride,Ф he said aloud. УAnd if you were thinking of
me, brother, may the thought turn your guts to ire.Ф

Far to the south, in a little town in Eldidd, an event was happening
that would indeed bring Gwerbret Rhys the sort of pain his younger
brother had wished upon him, even though Rhodry had no way of
knowing it. Dun Bruddlyn, a fort only recently disposed upon its
lord, Garedd, was filled with a tense sort of bustle. While the lord
himself paced restlessly in his great hall with a goblet of mead in
his hand his second wife, Donilla, was giving birth, up in the
womenТs hall. Since this was her first child, the labor was a long
one, and Tieryn Lovyan, as well as the other women in attendance,