"Doranna Durgin - Wolverine's Daughter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Durgin Doranna)

"Slaver," she said, repeating the word. "And what is that? What are you?"

"I sell goods," he said, as if it were no matter. "The children are mine; I saw them first. Find your own if
you want them."

Kelyn shifted uneasily. There was more going on here than she understood, and his casual attitude
worried her. "The children belong to themselves."

"He'll take us away!" the other child saidтАФa girl's voice, frightened into thinness. "He'll sell us!"

Sellthem? Kelyn narrowed her eyes. The man only smiled at her, unpleasantтАФand satisfied. Not pushing
her; happy enough to drag this out. "There are others," she said with sudden perception.

Agreeably, he said, "Not far behind." He hefted the whip, as if judging where best to apply its lash.
"We'll be glad enough to take three instead of two. You, nowтАФyou're as much a prize as both children
together. So if you're thinking of running, I wouldn't bother. I'll round them up laterтАФafter I've got you."

You alone would be worth twice the distance they rode, Rika had said to her, and Kelyn hadn't
understood. Now, suddenly, she did. She spat at the horse's feet, startling it. "Then come and get me,"
she told the rider. "Before I getyou ."

"Kill him!" the boy child shouted.

"Take his horse!" the girl said, more sensibly.

Yes, the horse. With the horse, all three of them could get away from the slaver's friends. Kelyn showed
her teeth at the man and whirled the staff in a complicated figure-eight pattern, perfected by years of
practice and many barked shins.

He shook his head and lifted the reins, and Kelyn saw that he simply meant to dance out of her reach
until his friends arrived. Instantly she darted forward, bringing the stout ironwood down across the
horse's nose with a carefully measured blow and taking both horse and manтАФand childrenтАФby
complete surprise.

"Don't hit the horse!" the girl screamed at her, while the creature struggled to deal with both its pain and
the sudden haul on the reins as its rider tried to force it out of reach. It reared, and the man
cursedтАФanother word Kelyn didn't know, though she thought she'd learned all of thoseтАФand though
Kelyn dodged out of the way of those hooves, she couldn't avoid the lash that came down on her
shoulder, splitting her tunic and skin alike. The horse skittered sideways, leaving Kelyn behind despite her
desperate lunge to close on it. The lash wrapped around her staff, yanking it from her grasp.

If he expected it to slow her down, he was wrong; while he jerked the whip to free it of her staff, she
closed the ground between them, coming up hard against the horse's side when, still fighting the reins, it
abruptly reversed its movement. She lost all the air in her lungs with a grunt, but not her purposeтАФdigging
her fingers around the man's arm and scabbard belt, she dragged him down with her as she fell.

He landed on top of her and tried to roll away, clawing for the knife on his belt, but she went with him;
they tumbled and grappled and then suddenly he was sitting on top of her, his hands pinning her arms by
her head and his hips wisely and quickly lowering to sit on hers, where the kick she'd already been aiming
couldn't land on his most vulnerable parts. There, he grinned at her. "Nothing like a little hands-on check