"Dave Duncan - The Seventh Sword - 2 - The Coming Of Wisdom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

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The Fourth Oath
Fortunate is he who saves the life of a colleague, and greatly blessed are two
who have saved each other's. To them only is permitted this oath and it shall be
paramount, absolute, and irrevocable:
I am your brother, My life is your life, Your joy is my joy, My honor is your
honor, Your anger is my anger, My friends are your friends, Your enemies are my
enemies, My secrets are your secrets, Your oaths are my oaths, My goods are your
goods, You are my brother.

BOOK ONE:
HOW THE SWORDSMAN RAN AWAY
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"Quili! Wake up! Priestess!"
Whoever was shouting was also banging on the outer door. Quili rolled over and
buried her head under the blanket. Surely she had just come to bed?
The outer door squeaked. The banging came again, now on the planks of the inner
door, nearer and much louder.
"Apprentice Quili! You must come!" More banging.
The trouble with summer was that there was never enough night for sleeping, yet
the little room was still quite black. The roosters had not started yet... No,
there was one, far away ... She would have to waken. Someone must be sick or
dying.
Then the inner door squealed open, and a man was waving a rush light and
shouting. "Priestess! You must comeтАФthere are swordsmen, Quili!"
"Swordsmen?" Quili sat up.
Salimono was a roughhewn, lumbering man, a fanner of the Third. Normally
imperturbably placid, he was capable on rare occasions of becoming as flustered
as a child. Now one of his great hands was waving the sparking rush light all
around, threatening to set fire to his own silver hair, or Quili's straw
mattress, or the ancient shingles of the roof. It scrolled brilliance in the
dark. It flickered on stone walls, and on his haggard face, and in Quili's eyes.
"Swordsmen. .. coming ... Oh! Beg pardon, priestess!" He
1
2 THE COMING OF WISDOM
turned around quickly, just as Quili fetl back and pulled the blanket up to her
chin.
"Sal'o, you did say 'swordsmen'?"
"Yes, priestess. In a boat. By the jetty. Piliphanto saw them. You hurry,
Quili..." He headed for the door.
"Wait!"
Quili wished she could take off her head, shake it, and put it back on again.
She had walked away most of the night with Agol's baby, surely the worst case of
colic in the history of the People.
Swordsmen? The rush light was filling the tiny room with fumes of goose grease.
Piliphanto was not a total idiot. No thinker, but no idiot. He was a keen
fisherman, which could explain why he had been down on the jetty before dawn.
There would be more light down by the water, and a swordsman's silhouette would