"Robin Hobb - Assassin 1 - Assassin' s Apprentice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hobb Robin)

he thinks this will sway the people, make them warmer toward him. Prove he's a
man, that Chivalry can father a child. Or maybe prove he's a human, and can make
mistakes like the rest of them." Regal's tone betrayed that he agreed with none
of this.
"And this will make the people like him more, support his future kingship
more? That he fathered a child on some wild woman before he married his queen?"
Verity sounded confused by the logic.
I heard the sourness in Regal's voice. "So the King seems to think. Does he
care nothing for the disgrace? But I suspect Chivalry will feel differently
about using his bastard in such a way. Especially as it regards dear Patience.
But the King has ordered that the bastard be brought to Buckkeep when you
return." Regal looked down on me as if ill satisfied.
Verity looked briefly troubled, but nodded. A shadow lay over Burrich's
features that the yellow lamplight could not lift.
"Has my master no say in this?" Burrich ventured to protest. "It seems to me
that if he wants to settle a portion on the family of the boy's mother, and set
him aside, then, why surely for the sake of my Lady Patience's sensibilities, he


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should be allowed that discretion-"
Prince Regal broke in with a snort of disdain. "The time for discretion was
before he rolled the wench. The Lady Patience is not the first woman to have to
face her husband's bastard. Everyone here knows of his existence; Verity's
clumsiness saw to that. There's no point to trying to hide him. And as far as a
royal bastard is concerned, none of us can afford to have such sensibilities,
Burrich. To leave such a boy in a place like this is like leaving a weapon
hovering over the King's throat. Surely even a houndsman can see that. And even
if you can't, your master will."
An icy harshness had come into Regal's voice, and I saw Burrich flinch from
his voice as I had seen him cower from nothing else. It made me afraid, and I
drew the blanket up over my head and burrowed deeper into the straw. Beside me,
Vixen growled lightly in the back of her throat. I think it made Regal step
back, but I cannot be sure. The men left soon after, and if they spoke any more
than that, no memory of it lies within me.
Time passed, and I think it was two, or perhaps three weeks later that I
found myself clinging to Burrich's belt and trying to wrap my short legs around
a horse behind him as we left that chill village and began what seemed to me an
endless journey down to warmer lands. I suppose at some point Chivalry must have
come to see the bastard he had sired and must have passed some sort of judgment
on himself as regarded me. But I have no memory of such a meeting with my
father. The only image I carry of him in my mind is from his portrait on the
wall in Buckkeep. Years later I was given to understand that his diplomacy had
gone well indeed, securing a treaty and peace that lasted well into my teens and
earning the respect and even fondness of the Chyurda.
In truth, I was his only failure that year, but I was a monumental one. He
preceded us home to Buckkeep, where he abdicated his claim to the throne. By the
time we arrived, he and Lady Patience were gone from court, to live as the Lord