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

the only real stability I had in my life, and now I felt it trembling under me.
"So." He spoke at last, and put a finality into the word. "So. You had to put
yourself before his eyes, did you? Had to call attention to yourself. Well. He's
decided what to do with you." He sighed, and his silence changed. For a brief
time I almost felt he pitied me. But after a bit he spoke.
"I'm to choose a horse for you tomorrow. He suggested that it be a young one,
that I train you up together. But I talked him into starting you with an older,
steadier beast. One student at a time, I told him. But I've my own reasons for
putting you with an animal that's ... less impressionable. See that you behave;
I'll know if you're playing about. Do we understand one another?"
I gave him a quick nod.
"Answer, Fitz. You'll have to use your tongue, if you'll be dealing with
tutors and masters."
"Yes, sir."
It was so like Burrich. Entrusting a horse to me had been uppermost in his
mind. With his own concern attended to, he announced the rest quite casually.
"You'll be up with the sun from now on, boy. You'll learn from me in the
morning. Caring for a horse, and mastering it. And how to hunt your hounds
properly, and have them mind you. A man's way of controlling beasts is what I'll
teach you." The last he emphasized heavily and paused to be sure I understood.
My heart sank, but I began a nod, then amended it to "Yes, sir."
"Afternoons, they've got you. For weapons and such. Probably the Skill,
eventually. In winter months, there will be indoor learning. Languages and
signs. Writing and reading and numbers, I don't doubt. Histories, too. What
you'll do with it all, I've no idea, but mind you learn it well to please the
King. He's not a man to displease, let alone cross. Wisest course of all is not
to have him notice you. But I didn't warn you about that, and now it's too
late."
He cleared his throat suddenly and took a breath. "Oh, and there's another
thing that's to change." He took up the bit of leather he'd been working on and
bent over it again. He seemed to speak to his fingers. "You'll have a proper
room of your own now. Up in the keep where all those of noble blood sleep. You'd
be sleeping there right now, if you'd bothered to come in on time."
"What? I don't understand. A room?"
"Oh, so you can be swift spoken, when you've a mind? You heard me, boy.
You'll have a room of your own, up at the keep." He paused, then went on
heartily, "I'll finally get my privacy back. Oh, and you're to be measured for
clothes tomorrow as well. And boots. Though what's the sense of putting a boot



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on a foot that's still growing, I don't-"
"I don't want a room up there." As oppressive as living with Burrich had
become, I suddenly found it preferable to the unknown. I imagined a large, cold
stone room, with shadows lurking in the corners.
"Well, you're to have one," Burrich announced relentlessly. "And it's time
and past time for it. You're Chivalry's get, even if you're not a proper-born