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

the boy. Of using him, as a tool, a weapon. You think he will not remember your
words when he is grown?"
King Shrewd laughed, and the sound rang against the stone walls of the Great
Hall. "Remember them? Of course he will. I count on it. Look at his eyes, Regal.
There is intelligence there, and possibly potential Skill. I'd be a fool to lie
to him. Stupider still to simply begin his training and education with no



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explanation. For that would leave his mind fallow for whatever seeds others
might plant there. Isn't it so, boy?"
He was regarding me steadily and I suddenly realized I was returning his
look. For all of his speech our gazes had been locked as we read one another. In
the eyes of the man who was my grandfather was honesty, of a rocky, bony sort.
There was no comfort in it, but I knew I could always count on it to be there. I
nodded slowly.
"Come here."
I walked to him slowly. When I reached him, he got down on one knee, to be
eye to eye with me. The Fool knelt solemnly beside us, looking earnestly from
face to face. Regal glared down at all of us. At the time I never grasped the
irony of the old King genuflecting to his bastard grandson. So I was solemn as
he took the tart from my hands and tossed it to the puppies who had trailed
after me. He drew a pin from the folds of silk at his throat and solemnly pushed
it through the simple wool of my shirt.
"Now you are mine," he said; and made that claiming of me more important than
any blood we shared. "You need not eat any man's leavings. I will keep you, and
I will keep you well. If any man or woman ever seeks to turn you against me by
offering you more than I do, then come to me, and tell me of the offer, and I
shall meet it. You will never find me a stingy man, nor be able to cite ill use
as a reason for treason against me. Do you believe me, boy?"
I nodded, in the mute way that was still my habit, but his steady brown eyes
demanded more.
"Yes, Sir."
"Good. I will be issuing some commands regarding you. See that you go along
with them. If any seem strange to you, speak to Burrich. Or to myself. Simply
come to the door of my chamber, and show that pin. You'll be admitted."
I glanced down at the red stone that winked in a nest of silver. "Yes, sir,"
I managed again.
"Ah," he said softly, and I sensed a trace of regret in his voice and
wondered what it was for. His eyes released me, and suddenly I was once more
aware of my surroundings, of the puppies and the Great Hall and Regal watching
me with fresh distaste on his face, and the Fool nodding enthusiastically in his
vacant way. Then the King stood. When he turned away from me, a chill went over
me, as if I had suddenly shed a cloak. It was my first experience of the Skill
at the hands of a master.
"You don't approve, do you, Regal?" The King's tone was conversational.
"My king may do whatever he wishes." Sulky.