"Mercedes Lackey - Dragon Jousters 4 - Aerie" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

he'd been able to lay claim to a spot before anyone else. He'd gotten one of the dwellings cut into the
sides of the canyons of this place that had required the least amount of repair: two rooms with very high
ceilings, one above the other, and the lower room had been hewn out to be lower than the street level,
which seemed to be the case with roughly half of the dwellings. He had to wonder again, if dragons had
once been quartered here. The dwellings seemed designed for them, for sand wallows on the lower
floors. There had been no need to do much to the place other than have the shutters made. A little subtle
magic worked by one of the priests during akamiseen and enough sand to make a tolerable pit for
Avatre had been deposited literally at his door; the canyon street had been knee-deep in it. He (and
everyone else who had moved to this section) only had to shovel it inside.

Shovel it inside! It was a good thing he had spent most of his life as a serf and was used to hard labor!
Even with Avatre's helpтАФand she had been, surprisingly, a lot of help. Digging and shoving alongside
him, once she understood that the sand was going to be her new wallowтАФit had taken a lot of
backbreaking labor. At the moment, there were very few spare hands to be had in the canyons of Aerie,
and the Jousters were all getting their hands dirtier than they ever dreamed possible. For most of them, it
was more physical work than they had ever done in all their lives put together. There had been a lot of
complaining about sore muscles, and a great many people soaking their aches in the hot spring before
they went to bed.

Furniture had been problematic; it was whatever anyone could bring across the desert or could spare,
and there wasn't much of either, though more was coming in all the time. Most of it was Tian, since the
priests were bringing caravan loads of things with them.

Kiron was of two minds about that. Tian furniture was more practical out here, made for a desert
climate, but seeing it gave him twinges from a lifetime as a captive. At least he had an Altan-style mattress
and blankets to sleep on. He could not imagine how the Tians managed with their benchlike beds and
neck rests instead of pillows. It didn't look comfortable. In fact, it looked rather like the sleeper had been
laid out for the embalmers.

He had collected bits of furnishings through begging, trading, and actually fetching a few items himself
when he had to take Avatre across the desert to tend to more serious matters. So far, he had collected a
chair, his bed, a clothes chest, a desk, a brazier, and some lamps. Avatre had her wallow, properly
heated now by magic. It looked bare, in the big, empty room, but then, he didn't actually spend a lot of
time here. There was just too much work to be done.

He punched his pillow a few times and settled back onto his side. But something in him kept listening for
that pesky cat.

He was not sure how he had acquired the little beast. It seemed to have decided that he was the one
privileged to play host to it. Which wouldn't have been bad, since it definitely kept down the vermin,
except for the way it kept trying to suck his earlobe when he slept and use him as a ramp to get itself into
the air.

Some priests had followed the Jousters out here to Aerie, prompting a couple of snickering remarks
about priests looking for captive worshippers. But it was not to be denied that there were temples here,
too, and no real need for any Jousters to claim them. The priests of the cat goddess Pashet had found
what seemed to be an ancient temple to their deity and had claimed it, bringing with them a veritable
horde of four-legged avatars. Cats being cats, themau -cats brought to Sanctuary had thrived and
bredтАж cats being cats, the ones brought here did the same. Not that they weren't useful, because the
half-ruined city swarmed with all manner of things that the cats simply gobbled up, but cats did have