"David Farland - Runelords 5 - Sons of the Oak" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farland David)

focus. He was supposed to gaze not just upon her face or figure, but upon die
totality of herтАФher clothing, her movements, me house and possessions that she
surrounded herself with.
Waggit was teaching the boys to "read." Not to read char┬мacters or runes upon
a parchment, but to read gestures and body languageтАФto "read" people. Waggit,
who had mas┬мtered several disciplines in the House of Understanding, in┬мsisted
that "Of all the things I teach you, reading the human animal, as is taught in
the Room of Eyes, is the skill that you will invoke most in life. Reading a
person well can mean the difference between life and death."

"She's not married," Jaz offered. "You can tell because she doesn't have any
clothes but hers drying on the line." Jaz always tried to speak first, making
the easy observations. That only made Fallion's job harder.
Fallion was being tested; he struggled to find something more insightful to
say. "I don't think she wants to get mar┬мried ... ever."
Behind him, Sir Borenson gave a sharp snort of a laugh and demanded, "Why
would┬╗you say that?"
Borenson knew this land, this woman. His snort sounded almost derisive, as if
Fallion had guessed wrong. So Fallion checked himself, and answered. "You and
Waggit are her age. If she wanted a husband, she'd smile and look for a
rea┬мson to talk. But she's afraid of you. She keeps her shoulders turned away,
like she's saying, 'Come near me, and I'll run.
Borenson laughed again.
Waggit asked, "Is he correct?"
"He's got the widow Huddard right," Borenson said. "Cool as midwinter. Many a
man has wanted to warm her bed, but she'll have nothing to do with any of
them."
"Why not?" Waggit asked. But he didn't ask Borenson or Jaz. Instead he looked
at Fallion, probing, testing.
What he saw was a handsome boy with black hair, tanned features, nearly
flawless. His face still swelled with the fat of a child, but his eyes held
the wisdom of an old man.
Waggit studied the boy and thought, He's so youngтАФtoo young to plumb the
depths of the human soul. He is, after all, only a child, without even a
single endowment of wit to his name.
But Waggit also knew that Fallion was of a special breed. The children born in
the past few yearsтАФafter the Great WarтАФwere different from children bora in
the past Stronger. Wiser. Some thought that it had to do with the Earth King.
As if the rise of the first Earth King in two mil┬мlennia had bestowed a
blessing upon their seed. It was said that children in the rising generation
were more perfect than

their forefathers, more like the Bright Ones of the nether┬мworld than normal
children.
And if this was true of the get of common swineherds, it was doubly true of
the Earth King's firstborn, Fallion.
Fallion's brother Jaz was nothing like Fallion. He was a kind boy, small for
his age, and already distracted by a sala┬мmander pawing through the dead
leaves by the roadside. He would be a thoughtful prince someday, Waggit
imagined, but nothing special.