"Dave Luckett - The Girl The Apprentice And The Dogs Of Iron" - читать интересную книгу автора (Luckett Dave)

And she was small. The Eldra could grow tall, and perhaps she would yet, but they were fine of bone
and spare of body, with eyes large in a sharp face and ears that came to long, delicate points. Her hair
was dark honey color, cropped around her face, but picking up coppery lights from the glowing forge.

Loys glanced at the doorway, and there, as he had expected, her bow was leaning. It was a tall, straight
ash staff, straight because it was unstrung. This was a courtesy, too, not to bring a weapon into the
house, a sign of trust. He sipped his tea gravely and said nothing, for it is not polite to ask a guest her
business until she speaks of it herself.

She sipped her tea and set it aside, and then reached into her tunic, under the cape. A crackling, and she
had brought out a letter, a sheet of parchment folded corners-to-center and sealed with wax. She put it
into his hands, and Loys turned it over. He could read, but the name, written plain on the fold, meant
nothing to him: Serenir. He frowned.

"I know nobody of this name, Lady," he said. He half expected that she would not reply, for few among
the Eldra spoke the Hard Tongue, but she tilted her head and answered him.

"It is the same as the Pole Star, in your speech. He is a great maker of magic. A wizard." Her accent was
like a bell, open, clear, but with a ring and a rhythm of its own.

He considered. "Pole Star? The North Star, that the Watchers guard and the Dog points out?"

She nodded. "The Hunters and the Hound, yes."

"Then I do know him. His nameтАФat least, the name we call himтАФis Northstar, Antheus Northstar. And
you have come to the right place, for he is a guest in my house. Also a guest in my house."

She cocked her head, appreciating the last, and then looked around. "Is he here now?" she asked, after a
pause.

Loys hid a smile. "He is at my house, and still abed, I think. This is my forge, my place of work."

Her wide eyes widened farther. It was strange to one of the Eldra to be within a building at all. Stranger
yet to be told that a man might have more than one building, for more than one purpose.

Loys banked his fire and fed it with more charcoal, to burn evenly while he was away. He handed the
letter back to her. "If you will follow, I will take you to him," he said.

She followed. And a shadow followed them both.

---

Meg Wildwood was surprised to see her husband back so soon from the forge, and more surprised still
when he ushered in another guest. She was just having breakfast herself with her daughter, Rhianna, and
Rhianna's Master, the Magister Antheus Northstar. Loys had been wrong to think that the Magister
would still be asleep. Still, you would think that the Mage on the Queen's Council was far too important a
person to be sitting in the kitchen of a village smith, or to be eating ordinary oat porridge for breakfast, no
matter how clean and comfortable the kitchen, or good the porridge. But Magister Northstar never gave
himself airs. He was deep in discussion with his apprentice as the smith entered.