"Mercedes Lackey & Josepha Shennan - Castle of Deception" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

Kevin sighed. "Ada, you remember when I first came
here."

The woman smiled warmly. "Don't I, though. You
were such a little boy, almost too small for the lute on
your back, clinging to your music teacher's hand and
all wide-eyed with wonder."

"Mistress Malen was very kind."

"Well, of course she was! Imagine after all the years
of having to teach merchants' kids without a drop of
talent to them coming across someone like you with the
true gift for music! No, no, don't start blushing like
that You know it's true."

Ada plopped a shirt into her washtub and started
scrubbing. "Look you, lad, before she left. Mistress
Malen told me all about you: how you were pluck-
ing at the strings of your family's old lute the minute
you were old enough to hold it, making up your
own litde tunes till they didn't have a choice but to
hire her."

Kevin had to smile. Mistress Malen had been a
wonderful first teacher, endlessly patient with her eager
pupil. She had also been honest enough to admit his
talent was more than she could shape. A litde shiver of
wonder raced through the bardling as he remembered

4 Mercedes Lackey 6f'Josephs Sherman

how she'd shaken her head and told him, "You have the
makings ofa Bard, boy, a true Bard."

Ada's chuckle dragged him back to the present. **So
there you were, poor chick, standing in the courtyard
of the Blue Swan, fall of wonder, yes, but maybe just a
touch scared, too. And no surprise, being apprenticed
to Master Aidan like that, a BardтАФan^ a hero as well!"

Kevin glanced up at his Master's room. "You
remember how it was, don't you? When my Master
helped King Amber keep his throne, I mean.**

"Bless you, child, how old do you think I am? That
was a good thirty years ago! I was a chick myself back
then, much younger than you." She paused thought-
fully. "But I do remember all the celebrating. My, yes!
Everyone couldn't stop chattering about how it had