"Doranna Durgin - Seer's Blood" - читать интересную книгу автора (Durgin Doranna)

It was his cue.

He walked up to the edge of the garden, meeting the man's slightly challenging look but distracted by the
girl's open curiosity, and by the bemusement on her face as she considered Mage.Crippled hound .
White, spattered with brown freckles, big handsome blocky head, long, angular legs. Good breeding, fine
dogтАФexcept for the stiff hind leg, and the peculiar gait it forced upon him. A wry smile crooked Dacey's
mouth; he couldn't help it.Mage. Bred from a line long owned by his family, ever loyal, always by his
side.

The girl looked away, like she knew she'd been caught staring, and then couldn't seem to help herself;
she looked back from beneath lowered lids, watching them both with poorly disguised interest on her
lean features.

"Hey," Dacey said, a mild greeting the man returned with a nodтАФlikely all he would get, in these hills
where few strangers walked. "My name's Dacey Childers. I was wonderin' if you'd be in the mind for a
little tradin'."

"All depends on what's to be traded," the man said after a moment's studied deliberation of Dacey and
his pack, his gaze piercing and unapologetic. Aside from the stubborn-looking chin, his square features
held nothing of his daughter's. "And who's doin' the tradin'."

Whohad nothing to do with the name he'd already been given.Who meant Dacey's people, his place.
"My daddy's folks took us south from here after the Annekteh Ridge fight."

The girl's head lifted, a quick, direct stare with surprise behind it; she caught herself and looked away
again. Dacey added, "Not many people there now. I been huntin' something and it's took me to your
hills." He shrugged. "Once I get what I'm after, I'll be heading home."

"Cadell Kendricks," the man said, a friendlier tone in his voice. He gave a nod at the empty porch, a
mere lift of the chin that Dacey might have missed if he'd blinked wrong, then looked at the girl. "My
daughter Blaine. What're you needin'?"
 A shadow at the window rose; Dacey pretended he hadn't seen. "We've been moving so fast we've had
no time to store up on food, especially meat for the dogs." Dacey garnered another sharp, cryptic look
from the girl. "I've got some skins here, though, and we could do without them."

"We?" she asked, stepping on whatever her daddy had been about to say and earning herself a frown.

"Me an' the dogs, of course," he said. It didn't seem to be the answer she expected, although her father
showed no such awareness of other strangers in the area. His response elicited a quiet sort of smile from
herтАФthe smile of someone who is keeping some thoughts to herself, and intends to continue doing so.

Cadell nodded toward the house. "Lottie'll be putting the noon meal on. We might do some tradin', but
only iff'n you'll join us."

"I'm glad to." Dacey dropped his hand to Mage's head and said, "My dog won't be causin' any fights,
should you have your own around."

"Mine's tied. Don't have much patience for a dog hanging around the yard," Cadell said, though he
quickly added, "I didn't mean nothing by that. I never had the time to fool with a critter so's it'd behave as
well as your'n."