"Rawn, Melanie - Dragon Star 03 - Skybowl" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

"Where's your lady, anyhow?" Tilal asked as he settled down to eat.
Amiel pointed. "See that hill? I told her to stay put until I came for her." Then he sighed. "Which, of course, means she'll be down here before Andrev has sliced the bread."
The second piece of news held a great deal more fascination for Tilal. It seemed that after picking up troops from the beaches of the Pyrme and the mud of the Catha delta, the dragon ships had been anchored in Faolain Bay for several days to wait for all the remaining troops to march back downriver.
"I learned this from one of the physiciansЧa Fironese who can make himself understood without being suspected of anything but an odd accent. He talked to one of their sentries last nightЧ"
Nyr arrived then, to be duly greeted and congratulated. She seated herself on a convenient rock, cushioned with a soft woolen blanket, and thanked Andrev with a lovely smile as he gave her food and drink. Amiel paused to admire her, then mentioned where he was in the story.
She smiled innocently. "Have you said yet how our physician got away with impersonating a Vellanti warrior?"
Amiel grinned. "To give this devious woman her dueЧ seven days ago she ordered him to stop shaving."
"I approve of devious women," Tilal replied. "Beards
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aren't too fashionable anymore, but they can be useful. Go on."
"Well, he heard that they'd wait one more day for some clan or otherЧthey organize themselves into kin groups which are further divided into sections of forty-five, according to which island they're from and which of about fifty different warriors they claim as their primary ancestor, andЧ"
"One more day?" Tilal prompted.
"Huh? OhЧyes. So I knew that if we were going to steal the ships, we'd have to do it today."
"Then the ones we pushed into the sea this morningЧ"
"Чare mainly the ones who destroyed Riverport and marched up the Faolain. The ones from the Pyrme and the Catha are on those three ships we missed." He frowned. "They're chasing our two right now, aren't they?"
"Andrev?"
The boy was silent for a time. Then he met Tilal's gaze. "There's a good wind, and they're good sailors. They've passed the headland into the channel between Radzyn and Dorval, my lord. If Prince Amiel's ships can lose them among the Small Islands...."
"Yes, but that leaves three ships full of the whoresons to land and march up to Stronghold."
That was the third item, and the most momentous. The Fironese physician had learned that, according to the High Warlord's visionЧ"That was the word he said the man used, my lord, a 'vision' and not a battle plan"Чall surviving Vellant'im would soon be at Stronghold. To what purpose, the physician hadn't dared ask for fear of giving himself away.
"How many to a ship?"
"About three hundred. The two we took were for the ones they're expecting, and empty of all but the crew. So we simply stole a couple of longboats by night andЧ"
"Excellent," Tilal interrupted, thinking that he'd have time to hear the whole story when the bards made it into a ballad. Until then, he had other things to do. "Andrev, how many ships are off Goddess Keep?"
"Seven. Prince Arlis sank the others in Brochwell Bay."
"He did?" Nyr asked eagerly.
"When?" Amiel seconded. "How did it happen? We've been completely without news since we left Medawari."
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"I'll tell you all of it soon," Tilal promised. "Let's call it ten ships of three hundred each, added to the troops at Radzyn and StrongholdЧ"
"And those on Graypearl, my lord," Andrev reminded him.
"Goddess, yes, I'd forgotten. Well, when they leave, at least poor Ludhil can come down from the mountains and take his island back." He did some rapid calculationsЧand had to pause for a bracing gulp of wine.
"Pol's in trouble," he said at last. "I make it at least three thousand, possibly more, all converging on Stronghold."
"How many does he have at Feruche?" Nyr asked in a whisper.
"If he's lucky, seven hundred."
Amiel's windburned face paled. But it was only a moment before he earned Tilal's admiration by saying briskly, "You know, I haven't been to the Desert in years. Nyr, my love, how do you fancy a look at Radzyn Keep?"
Andry had been talking almost without interruption for quite some time. His throat was dry as he said, "So I thought Miyon must be on his way here, to lie his way out of the implications of what he did. I didn't realize what he was really up to until it happened."
Pol shrugged and hooked a finger at Kierun, who immediately poured more taze. "You did what you could, Andry. And that was plenty, believe me. I ean't tell you what a relief it is to be rid of him."
Andry nodded his thanks to the squire. At the beginning of the conversation, the boy had eyed him the way a colt eyes a hungry dragon. Now, at nearly noon, when most of the tale was told, evidence that the Lord of Goddess Keep made mistakes like anyone else had obviously eased Kierun's mind. Andry noted it with an inner smile.
"What I don't understand, though," he went on, "is why he didn't go to Rezeld. I was convincing enough with Chiana and Rinhoel. Why didn't Miyon join them as my Merida impersonation bade him do?"
"I suspect he saw something Chiana didn't." Pol tilted his chair back on two legs and propped one booted foot on the
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table. "Did your host at Swalekeep tell you how Tilal got the Vellant'im to march where he wanted them to?"
"He was a fine gossip, but tavernkeepers aren't privy to military secrets."
Pol delved a hand into a trouser pocket and produced a little green-glazed ceramic dragon. "This is from my father's collection at Stronghold. Maarken found them on corpses after the skirmish he fought on his way from Remagev." He tossed it to Andry, who sat a quarter of the way around the table. "They're made of various materials. Gold and silver indicate someone important. Safe-conduct passes, essentially. You're damned lucky Chiana and Rinhoel are fundamentally idiots. If they'd asked, and you hadn't been able to show them one of these, they would have killed you."
Andry turned the token in his fingers. "So Miyon knew I wasn't who I said I was. I wonder why he didn't try to kill me."
"Presumably, you had a superiorЧof whichever factionЧto report to. If you didn't...." Pol shrugged.
"Why wasn't I told about these?"
"Because no one could find you. Who knew you'd traipse around enemy-held countryside from Ossetia to Princemarch?" Pol was smiling, shaking his head. "Cousin, you're the same breed of crazy I am. Probably why we don't get along."
Andry had to laugh. "At least you drag an army along in your wake. Me, I get stuck with a lame-legged physician. How's Evarin feeling, by the way? I didn't have time after breakfast with my daughter to look in on him."