"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 25 - Torian Pearls." - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

Paor raised his own hand and pressed his wrist against Blade's in the Kargoi's gesture of honorable
friendship. "Until tomorrow." A moment later he was gone.

Blade sat down cross-legged on the ground, considering what he'd learned and making his plans for
tomorrow. The testing seemed simple and straightforward, but there was always a wide range of possible
surprises in something like this.

Fortunately, Blade could always draw on an equally wide range of talents plus the ability to think on his
feet. The surprises tomorrow would not be all on one side.
 Gradually the camp settled down for the night. The sounds of tools and crying children faded, the cook
fires died down, the mounted sentries took up their stations. Blade took a last drink of water, wrapped
himself in the leather cloak, and lay down in the grass.

The testing began the next morning as soon as the colors of the sunrise faded into daylight. The testing
place was on the open plain several miles west of the camp. Only a handful of baudzi and warriors were
on hand, and mounted sentries rode about to make sure no one else approached. Fortunately Paor
himself was on hand, so Blade knew that his back was as well-guarded as he could expect under the
circumstances.

The first test was an easy one, a test of Blade's ability to handle a drend. The riding drends were not
exactly docile, but they were too slow in their wits and on their feet to be able to do anything dangerous
to an experienced rider. Blade had no trouble starting, stopping, or guiding a drend at a walk and a trot.

Then came the test in archery. The Kargoi bow was about four feet long, built up of layers of drend
bone and hide and strung with drend sinews. It could easily send its short, thick arrows two hundred
yards. It was not a bow to bring down large animals or armored opponents, but the Kargoi didn't need it
for that. They'd never faced armored human enemies and didn't expect to. As for hunting, their method of
killing even wild drends was to run up to them on foot, stun them with clubs, then cut their throats. So
why a larger bow?

Blade could have given the Kargoi a long lecture on why. He also realized that until he passed all the
tests it would be a waste of breath to say anything to the Kargoi about weapons or warfare.

So he kept his mouth shut and picked up his bow and arrows for the testing of his archery. The mark
was the skull of a drend, mounted on a pole. Blade shot at it both sitting and standing, from fifty, a
hundred, and a hundred and fifty yards. Then he mounted a drend and shot while it was standing still,
while it was walking slowly, and while it was moving at full speed. Each time he fired six arrows, and five
of the six times he was able to put all six into the target. From the looks on the faces of the baudzi
watching him, thus was obviously more than good enough.

Then he decided it was time to put on a show. He turned to Paor and said quietly, "Have them take the
skull off the pole. I will shoot again, using the pole alone as my mark."

Blade shot six arrows at the bare pole. All six of them were sticking out of the pole by the time he'd
finished. Then he mounted a drend and rode at a walk past the pole, firing six more arrows as he passed.
Five of those six arrows also hit the pole, which began to look like a porcupine.

When Blade dismounted, everyone who'd watched was wide eyed with surprise and admiration.
Everyone, that is, except Rehod and the warriors who stood on either side of him. Rehod's eyes were
narrowed and about as admiring as the muzzle of a double-barreled shotgun.