"Jane Lindskold - Firekeeper Saga 1 - Through Wolf's Eyes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lindskold Jane)

Derian, full, warm, and pleasantly weary, asked, тАЬBut no one has heard from him since he crossed the
Iron Mountains?тАЭ

тАЬNo one who is admitting it,тАЭ said Earl Kestrel.

From where Derian sat, the earl was just a solid, hook-nosed shadow. He was not a big man. Indeed, he
was quite small, but as with the kestrel of his house name, small did not mean weak or tame. The furious
lash of his tongue when he was roused was to be as feared as another manтАЩs fistтАФmore so, to DerianтАЩs
way of thinking. You could outrun a bully, but never escape the wrath of a man of consequence.

He wondered, then, if that had not been precisely what Prince Barden of the House of the Eagle had
been trying to do when he left Hawk Haven for the unsettled lands beyond the barrier of the Iron
Mountains.

Prince Barden had been a third child and, by all accounts, roundly unhappy about being so. Although
King Tedric had his heir and his spare, he resisted having his youngest son attempt any independent
venture. Enough for the king that Barden learn to sit a horse, fight well enough for his class, and perhaps
dabble in some court tasks.

Perhaps when Crown Prince Chalmer had married and fathered a child or even when Princess Lovella
was similarly settled, then Barden might finally have been superfluous enough to be permitted his
freedom. Or maybe not even then. King Tedric was said to be a very domineering father.

Ironically, because Prince Barden had been the least noticed and least dominated by his father, he was
the most like the king in temperament. Prince Barden decided he would not see his life frittered away
while waiting for his siblings to marry (a task, to be fair to them, made more difficult in that King Tedric
wanted a hand in that choosing as well), to breed heirs, for his father to die. Thus, Prince Barden began
quietly laying plans for a venture of which his father was certain to disapprove.

Sometimes Derian wondered at the younger princeтАЩs ambitions. Himself an eldest son, Derian was all too
aware of the pressure of his parentsтАЩ hopes and expectations. How much easier life would be if they
would just leave him alone! Oh, they were loving and kindтАФnothing like King TedricтАФbut sometimes
Derian thought he would rebel if he heard one more тАЬDerian, have you practiced yourтАж handwriting,
riding, fencingтАжтАЭ The list was endless.

Even when he wasnтАЩt being set to his books, there were quizzes. тАЬQuick, son, tell me whose crest that
is!тАЭ Or тАЬDonтАЩt hold your knife in that hand, Derian Carter. A gentleman holds it like so.тАЭ Lately even his
dancing, which had made him the delight of the womenfolk since he was old enough to leave the
childrenтАЩs circles, had come into question. тАЬDonтАЩt skip so! More stately, more graceful!тАЭ

No doubt his parents had dreams of him rising into the lower ranks of the nobility, perhaps by marriage
to some impoverished nobleтАЩs plain daughter! Derian groaned inwardly at the thought. He fancied the
bakerтАЩs pretty second daughter, the one with the round cheeks and the saucy smile.

Maybe, now that he considered it, he was more like Prince Barden than he had thought. Both of them
had found their parentsтАЩ expectations a bit more than they could take, but the difference was that Prince
Barden had defied his father. Quietly and carefully he had gathered a cadre of men and women who, like
himself, longed for more than what Hawk Haven and her endless sparring with Bright Bay could offer.