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

wonder if and when he'd be their next king, and what kind of a king he would be.
Chivalry's dumping it over and leaving for Withywoods has stirred all the
Duchies as if he'd poked a stick in a hive."
Burrich lifted his eyes from Nosy's eager face. "Well, Fitz. Guess you got a
taste of it today. Fair scared poor Cob to death, your running off like that.
Now, are you hurt? Did anyone rough you up? I should have known there would be
those would blame all the stir on you. Come here, then. Come on."
When I hesitated, he moved over to a pallet of blankets made up near the fire
and patted it invitingly. "See. There's a place here for you, all ready. And
there's bread and meat on the table for both of you."
His words made me aware of the covered platter on the table. Flesh, Nosy's
senses confirmed, and I was suddenly full of the smell of the meat. Burrich
laughed at our rush to the table and silently approved how I shared a portion
out to Nosy before filling my own jaws. We ate to repletion, for Burrich had not
underestimated how hungry a pup and a boy would be after the day's
misadventures. And then, despite our long nap earlier; the blankets so close to
the fire were suddenly immensely inviting. Bellies full, we curled up with the
flames baking our backs and slept.
When we awoke the next day, the sun was well risen and Burrich already gone.
Nosy and I ate the heel of last night's loaf and gnawed the leftover bones clean
before we descended from Burrich's quarters. No one challenged us or appeared to
take any notice of us.
Outside, another day of chaos and revelry had begun. The keep was, if
anything, more swollen with people. Their passage stirred the dust and their
mixing voices were an overlay to the shushing of the wind and the more distant
muttering of the waves. Nosy drank it all in, every scent, every sight, every
sound. The doubled sensory impact dizzied me. As I walked I gathered from
snatches of conversation that our arrival had coincided with some spring rite of
merriment and gathering. Chivalry's abdication was still the main topic, but it
did not prevent the puppet shows and jugglers from making every corner a stage
for their antics. At least one puppet show had already incorporated Chivalry's
fall from grace into its bawdy comedy, and I stood anonymous in the crowd and
puzzled over dialogue about sowing the neighbor's fields that had the adults
roaring with laughter.
But very soon the crowds and the noise became oppressive to both of us; and I
let Nosy know I wished to escape it all. We left the keep, passing out of the
thick-walled gate past guards intent upon flirting with the merrymakers as they
came and went. One more boy and dog leaving on the heels of a fishmongering
family were nothing to notice. And with no better distraction in sight, we
followed the family as they wound their way down the streets away from the keep
and toward the town of Buckkeep. We dropped farther and farther behind them as
new scents demanded that Nosy investigate and then urinate at every corner,
until it was just he and I wandering in the city.
Buckkeep then was a windy, raw place. The streets were steep and crooked,
with paving stones that rocked and shifted out of place under the weight of
passing carts. The wind blasted my inland nostrils with the scent of beached



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