"Raymond Feist - Saga 2 - Magician - Master" - читать интересную книгу автора (Feist Raymond E)

some sort of bovine with two extra stumpy legs, or the cho-
ja, the insectoid creature who served the Tsurani and could
speak their language: these he had come to find familiar.
But each time he glimpsed a creature from the corner of his
eye and turned, expecting it to be Midkemian only to find it
was not, then the despair would strike.

Laurie's voice brought him from his reverie. "The
overseer comes."

Pug swore. If the overseer had to get himself dirty by
wading in the water, then he would be in a foul moodЧ
which could mean heatings, or a reduction in the chroni-
cally meager food. He would already be angered by the
delay in the cutting. A family of burrowers, beaverlike six-
legged creatures, had made themselves at home in the
roots of the great trees. They would gnaw the tender roots
and the trees would sicken and die. The soft, pulpy wood
would turn sour, then watery, and after a while the tree
would collapse from within. Several burrower tunnels had
been poisoned, but the damage had already been done to
the trees.

A rough voice, swearing mightily while its owner
splashed through the swamp, announced the arrival of the
overseer, Nogamu. He himself was a slave, but he had
attained the highest rank a slave could rise to, and while he
could never hope to be free, he had many privileges and
could order soldiers or freemen placed under his com-
mand. A young soldier came walking behind, a look of
mild amusement on his face. He was clean-shaven in the
manner of a Tsurani freeman, and as he looked up at Pug,
the slave could get a good look at him. He had the high
cheekbones and nearly black eyes that so many Tsurani
possessed. His dark eyes caught sight of Pug, and he
seemed to nod slightly. His blue armor was of a type
unknown to Pug, but with the strange Tsurani military
organization, that was not surprising. Every family, de-
mesne, area, town, city, and province appeared to have its
own army. How they all related one to another within the
Empire was beyond Pug's understanding.

The overseer stood at the base of the free, his short
robe held above the water. He growled like the bear he

6 MAGICIAN

resembled and shouted up at Pug, "What's this about
another rotten tree?"