"Bill Fawcett & Brian Thomsen - Masters of Fantasy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fawcett Bill)

So they would have to wait until a Herald with that Gift could reach them.
"I wouldn't think that this village is very defensible," Sted began, giving ordersтАФcleverly phrased as
suggestionsтАФto safeguard the people of this place.
:Solenbay,: Vedalia supplied.
"Have you anywhere that people can go to hide if raiders appear?" he wanted to know. "These raiders
won't know the lay of the land, they won't know where to look, and I doubt if they would linger very
long to search."
The babbling died to whispers, and anxious eyes were locked on Sted's face.
"The water-caves," suggested one girl promptly, from the back of the crowd, and blushed.
"Good. If there are any that are particularly hard to find?" Stedrel prompted.
The girl giggled nervously, and Alain had a shrewd notion that she knew the location of every water-
cave within walking distance of the village. "Reckon I know some that no one else does," she offered,
turning such a deep crimson that she looked sunburnt.
"That be why we can't find you, half nights, Savvy?" asked an older womanтАФnot unkindly, but
knowingly.
"Perhaps if you moved all your valuables and stores there now, you'd have only yourselves to get into
hiding," Sted suggested, and got nods, some reluctant, all around. "Obviously the main thing is to save
you, but I doubt these raiders are going to appear over the horizon within the next day or two, and we
should save as much as we can from them."
"I can't see us fighting them off," said one of the other men (who seemed to be one of the village
leaders) with a defeated air. "We're fisherfolk, not fighters."

file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/0743488229___2.htm (6 of 17)7-1-2007 23:47:51
 - Chapter 2


"So save everything that you can in the caves," Sted agreed.
"The ones farthest from here?" Alain ventured. "That way the ones nearest wouldn't be crammed so full
people wouldn't fit."
"Good thought," Sted seconded. "Now, I suppose there's no reason why you couldn't spare the young
women and children with the swiftest feet and keenest sight to keep watch along the coast?"
"With a horn for eachтАФor something to build a signal fire?" added Alain, and got another approving
glance from Sted.
"But the choresтАФ" objected one of the men. "The cleaning, the cookingтАФ"
But the ones who were at risk here were nodding vigorously. "No reason why we can't eat common out
of the big fish-kettle 'till this is over," pointed out one old man. "Only takes one set of hands for fish-
stew, cooking all day." "And if the choice is dirty floors and unmade beds or being carried off, dirty
floors we'll have, Matt Runyan," said another woman sharply. "As for the restтАФwell, we'll barrel up the
fish as it's finished smoking and move it into hiding. Let 'em have a few racks of fish, I say. Better fish
than our children."
"And when they come, find no one, and burn the place out?" the same man objected.
"They'd do that anyway!" shouted a haggard-looking fellow who Alain realized must be one of the now-
bereft fisherfolk from the village that had been destroyed. "What's more important, your things or your
people? You can rebuild housen. You tell me how to bring back your wives and kiddies!"
"I'll be sending word of this to Haven anyway," Stedrel pointed out. "As soon as I've got a moment of
quiet."
That quieted some of the agitation, as they all recalled that Stedrel was so powerful a Mindspeaker he
could send directly to Haven itself, and every receptive mind along the way. Help would not be far
offтАФtwo or three fortnights at most.
"The King will send troops, and when they get here, you'll be able to go back to life as usual. And we'll