"Jane Lindskold - Firekeeper Saga 4 - Wolf Captured" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lindskold Jane)

Although she didn't want to say anything to Derian, Firekeeper was very-worriedтАФand worry was not
an emotion with which she was at all comfortable.

Firekeeper was accustomed to the urgency of a hunt. Indeed, Derian had called her obsessive and
irresponsible when she was after something. She preferred to think of herself as undistracted.

Humans were so good at worrying about what might happen that often they did nothing rather than risk a
wrong action. Firekeeper never forgot what she was after and went directly for it. At least that was how
Firekeeper preferred to think of herself, lightly dismissing the times she had worried about the
consequences of her actions but acted nonetheless.

Now, trapped in a metal-barred cage in a smelly boat heading who knew where, she was worried. To
make matters worse, all of these worries conspired to keep her from doing what she wanted to do,
which was break out of the cageтАФif possibleтАФand get out of this boat. She'd rather take her risks with
the river than with these strangers.

However, there was no way she could do this. Derian had lapsed back into semiconsciousness, before,
she thought, he realized just how serious their situation was. For one thing, he hadn't seemed to register
that they were aboard a boat, and that the boat was moving. She had little idea of how swiftly they were
traveling, but the sound of water against the sides suggested a fair amount of speed.

The Flin River was in spate, channeling runoff from the spring snowmelt, and the current was swift. It did
not take an experienced sailor to realize that they were probably moving far more rapidly than anything
ashore. Moreover, no one would notice one more boat among so many. Spring brought a return to river
traffic, and with a new season nothing would be unusualтАФor rather, everything would be. Moons would
wax and wane before the riverside dwellers would register which boats ran usual routes and so notice
those that did not.

To make matters worse, she had no idea where they were headed. Maps were something Firekeeper
understood, though she tended to struggle a bit with them. She had seen maps of the local waterways,
rivers drawn as bright blue curves that to her eyes bore little resemblance to the broad, powerful reality.
From Eagle's Nest, the capital city of Hawk Haven, the Flin ran southeast before encountering the Barren
River. The Barren then continued northeast before emptying into the ocean at Hawk Haven's one harbor,
Port Haven.

Then we are being taken, she thought, either to Bright Bay or to the ocean.

But this train of thought led her to no constructive conclusions about their captors. Bright Bay was
officially friendly to Hawk Haven, but unlike in a wolf pack there were those who grumbled about the
rulers, even when those rulers led strongly. She had heard few complaints about King Allister of the
Pledge from those who had come from Bright Bay to celebrate the birth of his grandson, but then she
would not have. She was known as Allister's friend, and in any case his enemies would not have made
the long journey to celebrate the child's birth.

What if the boat was carrying them out onto the ocean? Firekeeper had seen the ocean, understood that
somewhere across impossibly vast stretches of water were the Isles where Queen ValoraтАФno friend to
Firekeeper or those she valuedтАФruled. Firekeeper understood, too, that humans used the ocean as deer
might a forest trail. Reaching the ocean might not be journey's end, but rather journey's beginning.

No. Thinking where they were going was useless. Only humans spent time planning hunts when the game