"02 - The Wyvern's Spur - Jeff Grubb & Kate Novak [4.0]" - читать интересную книгу автора (Finder's Stone)

"Cole? Met him at court a few times. Slew his share of giants, your father did."

"He did?" Giogi asked with surprise. His father had died when Giogi was only
eight, so he hadn't known him very well. But he was certain no one had ever
mentioned that Cole had slain giants.
"Served His Majesty with honor, like generations of your family before him,"
Sudacar said, pulling his dripping line from the water and adjusting it behind
his back.
"Aunt Dorath told me he was a trade envoy."
"He might have been that as well," Sudacar said, whipping the line out over the
stream again.
"As well? As well as what?"
"He was a warrior adventurer. Your aunt never told you that?"
"No," Giogi admitted. Loyally, he added, "It must have slipped her mind."
Sudacar snorted. "Wouldn't have considered that a proper occupation for a
Wyvernspur, would she? I'm surprised Drone never mentioned it."
So was Giogi, though he did not say so aloud.
Drone Wyvernspur was Giogi's great-aunt Dorath's cousin and therefore Giogi's
first cousin twice removed, but out of respect and affection, Giogi called him
Uncle Drone. When Giogi's mother had died a year after her husband, Aunt Dorath
had taken care of Giogi, but Uncle Drone had been assigned the task of
completing the masculine aspects of Giogi's education. An unmarried wizard of
sedentary habits, Uncle Drone had not exactly been the most useful source of
information about women, hunting, or horses.
Drone knew a good deal, though, about wine and gambling, and something of
politics and religion, and, armed with this learning, Giogi usually managed to
hold his own in taverns and after-dinner conversations. The wizard had told
Giogi plenty of stories about his mother, Bette, and her father, the carpenter,
even though Aunt Dorath had never approved of Cole's wife's family. Why, though,
Giogi wondered, hadn't Uncle Drone told me Cole was an adventurer?
"Would you care to walk back to Redstone with me?" he asked Sudacar, hoping to
hear more about his father, something he could confront Uncle Drone with.
The lord shook his head. "Everything's at sixes and sevens up there. Culspiir
and I offered our assistance, but your Aunt Dorath as much as told us to keep
our noses out of Wyvernspur business. She doesn't want an interloper like me
involved. I'll tucker in at the Five Fine Fish and creep back to the castle in
the small hours. Safer for all involved that way."
"Oh." Disappointed, Giogi stood beside Sudacar, racking his head for something
else to say to keep the conversation going. His wits failed him, as they were
wont to do, so he stood wordlessly beside Sudacar as the shadows lengthened.
Sudacar cast his line twice more. Farther upstream there was a hooting and a
sudden flurry of wings, followed by a splash. An owl fished the waters as well.
Finally Sudacar spoke. "Thought I'd seen a ghost when I saw you on the opposite
bank, in those boots with that cloak. You haven't got Cole's face, but you have
his shape, his stance, his walk." Sudacar cast his line again. "If you'd care to
talk about your father," he offered, "stop in at the Fish later, and we'll raise
a mug in his honor."
Giogi grinned with pleasure. "If I can escape Aunt Dorath's clutches, I'll do
just that," he agreed. Just then, a sudden chill made him realize the warmth had
gone with the sunlight. He pulled his cloak closer to his body. "I'd better be