"Barbara Hambly - Sun Wolf 1 - The Ladies Of Mandrigyn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hambly Barbara)

you in an hour, Fawn," and departed; only when she was outside did she allow herself a small,
amused grin.



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She returned in company with An, a young man who was Sun Wolf's other lieutenant and who rather
resembled an ad-otescent black bear. They bade the Wolf a grave good evening.

6 Barbara Humbly

collected the damp, subdued, and rather pink-cheeked Fawn, and made their way across the camp. The
wind had risen again, cold off the sea with the promise of the winter's deadly storms; drifts of
woodsmoke from the camp's fires blew into their eyes. Above them, the fires in the city flared,
fanned by the renewed breezes, and a sulfurous glow outlined the black crenelations of the walls.
The night tasted raw, wild, and strange, still rank with blood and broken by the wailing of women
taken in the sacking of the town.

"Things settling down?" the Hawk asked.

Ari shrugged. "Some. The militia units are already drunk. GradduckтАФthat tin-pot general who
commanded the City TroopsтАФis taking all the credit for breaking the siege."

Starhawk feigned deep thought. "Oh, yes," she remembered at length. "The one the Chief said
couldn't lay seige to a pothouse."

"No, no," Ari protested, "it wasn't a pothouseтАФan outhouse ..."

Voices yelled Ari's name, calling him to judge an athletic competition that was as indecent as it
was ridiculous, and he laughed, waved to the women, and vanished into the darkness. Starhawk and
Fawn continued to walk, the wind-torn torchlight banding their faces in lurid colorsтАФthe Hawk long-
legged and panther-graceful in her man's breeches and doublet, Fawn shy as her namesake amid the
brawling noise of the camp, keeping close to Starhawk's side. As they left the noisier precincts
around the wine issue, the girl asked, "Is it true he's being asked to go against Altiokis?"

"He won1! do it," Starhawk said. "Any more than he'd work for him. He was approached for that,
too, years ago. He won't meddle with magic one way or the other, and I can't say that I blame him.
Altiokis is news of the worst possible kind."

Fawn shivered in the smoky wind and drew the spiderweb silk of her shawl tighter about her
shoulders. "Were they all like that? Wizards, 1 mean? Is that why they allтАФdied out?"

In the feeble reflection of lamplight from the tents, her green eyes looked huge and transparent.
Damp tendrils of hair clung to her cheeks; she brushed them aside, watching Starhawk worriedly.
Like most people in the troop, she was a little in awe of that steely and enigmatic woman.

Starhawk ducked under the door flap of her tent, and held it aside for Fawn to pass. "1 don't know
if that's why the wizards finally died out," she said. "But I do know they weren't