"Books - David Eddings - Belgarath the Sorcerer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

the laughter of the aged one beside his fire, and my heart leaped
within me at each strangely familiar chuckle.

And when I'd finished and sat drowsing over my plate, he spoke again.

"Wilt thou sleep now, boy?"

"A corner, Master," I said.

"A little out-of-the-way place by the fire, if it isn't too much
trouble."

He pointed.

"Sleep there, boy," he said, and all at once I saw a bed that I had no
more seen than I had the table--a great bed with huge pillows and
comforters of softest down. I smiled my thanks and crept into the bed,
and, because I was young and very tired, I fell asleep almost at once
without even stopping to think about how very strange all of this had
been.

But in my sleep I knew that he who had brought me in out of the storm
and fed me and cared for me was watching through the long, snowy night,
and I slept even more securely in the comforting warmth of his care.

CHAPTER TWO

that began my servitude. At first the tasks my Master set me to were
simple ones--"Sweep the floor,"

"Fetch some firewood," "Wash the windows"--that sort of thing. I
suppose I should have been suspicious about many of them. I could have
sworn that there hadn't been a speck of dust anywhere when I first
mounted to his tower room, and, as I think I mentioned earlier, the
fire burning in his fireplace didn't seem to need fuel. It was almost
as if he were somehow making work for me to do.

He was a good Master, though. For one thing, he didn't command in the
way I'd heard the Tolnedrans command their servants, but rather made
suggestions.

"Thinkest thou not that the floor hath become dirty again, boy?" Or

"Might it not be prudent to lay in some store of firewood?"

My chores were in no way beyond my strength or abilities, and the
weather outside was sufficiently unpleasant to persuade me that what
little was expected of me was a small price to pay in exchange for food
and shelter. I did resolve, however, that when spring came and he
began to look farther afield for things for me to do, I might want to