"Watt-Evans,.Lawrence.-.Ethshar.3.-.The.Unwilling.Warlord" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

have no trouble at all cheating at dice. It wouldn't take
much warlockry to affect something as small as dice, and
it was said only warlockry could detect warlockry, so the
wizards and sorcerers Sterren had encountered would
never have known it was there.

Might it be that he controlled the dice without know-
ing it, using an uncontrolled trace of warlockry, simply
by wishing?

It might be, he decided, but it might also be that he
was just lucky. After all, he didn't win all the time. Per-
haps one of the gods happened to favor him, or it might
be that he had been born under a fortunate starЧthough
except for his luck with dice, he wasn't particularly
blessed.

He stood, tucked the dice in his pouch, and brushed
off the knees of his worn velvet breeches. The night was
still young, or at worst middle-aged; perhaps, he
thought, he might find another sucker.

He looked around the dimly lit tavern's main room,
but saw no promising prospects. Most of the room's
handful of rather sodden inhabitants were regulars who
knew better than to play against him. The really easy
marks, the backcountry farmers, would all be asleep or
outside the city walls by this hour of the night; he had no
real chance of finding one roaming the streets.

Other serious gamers would be settled in somewhere,
most likely on Games Street, in Camptown on the far
side of the city, where Sterren never venturedЧthere
were far too many guardsmen that close to the camp.
Guardsmen were bad businessЧsuspicious and able to
act on their suspicions.

A few potential opponents might be over in nearby
Westgate or down in the New Merchants' Quarter,
which were familiar territory, or in the waterfront dis-
tricts of Shiphaven and Spicetown, which he generally
avoided; but to find anyone he would have to start the
dreary trek from tavern to tavern once again.




6 THE UNWILLING WARLORD

Or of course, he could just sit and wait in the hope