"Katharine Kerr - The Bargain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kerr Katherine)

this country because they wish to trade. Naught moreтАФonly to caravan goods back
and forth in peace.тАЭ
тАЬBut who comes behind them? Those blood-soaked men who build the ugly
stone towers and take slaves?тАЭ
Paran could only nod in agreement. Like most common-born men in Eldidd,
he had never approved of making bondmen out of people who were neither criminals
nor debtors. It infuriated him that he was on the edge of paying for the arrogance of
lords.
тАЬIf I have you killed,тАЭ she said in a musing sort of voice. тАЬNo doubt someone
else will come, sooner or later. I have no desire to be as cruel as your folk, Paran of
Aberwyn. You walk out of my forest alive if you leave today.тАЭ
тАЬI will, then. IтАЩll even walk hungry to spare your game.тАЭ
тАЬNo need of that, as long as you take only what you truly need to feed
yourself.тАЭ
With a smile she laid a slender hand on his cheek, her fingers oddly cool and
smooth; she even allowed him to turn his head and kiss her fingers. Then she was
gone; they were all gone; there was only the clearing, the sunlight, his pack and his
sword lying in grass. Something else had been there, not but a moment
beforeтАФParan couldnтАЩt remember what. Deer, perhaps? Birds? A badger? He
shrugged the wondering away. Whatever it was, heтАЩd gone far enough into this
useless forest, and it was time to head back to Aberwyn.
Yet when he knelt to retrieve his pack, he found his map. As he picked it up
and read his notes, the memory came back to him, sharp and clear, and he laughed
in triumph. Dweomer the lady had, strange and powerful dweomer, but she knew
nothing of the ways of men, who write things down to outlast their remembering. Of
course, if he told this story of a sorceress in the woods and her cat-eyed servants,
no one was going to believe him anyway. As he set off, he was wondering just how
to phrase the thing to the merchant guild of Aberwyn, or if he should say anything at
all.
Five men on horseback, and a couple of mules carrying suppliesтАФthe effort
seemed more than one stinking bondman was worth, but at stake was the honor of
the thing, Addaric decided. This snot-faced Grunno belonged to Lord Cadlomar,
and if he had the gall to go sneaking off, then Addaric would fetch him back for his
lordship if it took him a fortnight. They took the hounds to GrunnoтАЩs hut and let the
dogs sniff his greasy blankets while his filthy woman watched, gasping for breath
with a sound like mice chittering. When they brought the dogs to the edge of the
village, they picked up the scent at once and went baying across the pastureland with
the riders trotting after, the kennelmaster first, then the four men from the warband.
The boy with the mules followed as best he could.
At the edge of the pasture, the ground turned rough with rock and burrow,
and Omillo, the kennelmaster, called in the big black-and-gray boarhounds. Addaric
rode up to join him.
тАЬHeтАЩs got a good head start,тАЭ Omillo said.
тАЬSo he does. But weтАЩve got horses. WeтАЩll get him, sure enough.тАЭ
Yet that evening they reached the big river, so newly discovered that most
people called it only тАЬthe one that flows into the GwynтАЭ or тАЬthe western one.тАЭ Here
in late summer it flowed so broad and shallow that a man could wade in it for miles
and let it wash all his scent away. As they milled around on the riverbank, the hounds
snapped at each other in sheer frustration.
тАЬWell, young Addaric, which way do you think he went?тАЭ