"George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire 0.1 - The Hedge Knight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin George R R)

He burst out roaring and cursing, only to jerk to a sudden halt at the sight of the boy beside the campfire. УYou!Ф He lowered the sword. УWhat are you doing here?Ф
УCooking a fish,Ф said the bald boy. УDo you want some?Ф
УI meant, how did you get here? Did you steal a horse?Ф
УI rode in the back of a cart, with a man who was bringing some lambs to the castle for my lord of AshfordТs table.Ф
УWell, youТd best see if heТs gone yet, or find another cart. I wonТt have you here.Ф
УYou canТt make me go,Ф the boy said, impertinent. УIТd had enough of that inn.Ф
УIТll have no more insolence from you,Ф Dunk warned. УI should throw you over my horse right now and take you home.Ф
УYouТd need to ride all the way to KingТs Landing,Ф said the boy. УYouТd miss the tourney.Ф
KingТs Landing. For a moment Dunk wondered if he was being mocked, but the boy had no way. of knowing that he had been born in KingТs Landing as well. Another wretch from Flea Bottom, like as not, and who can blame him for wanting out of that place?
He felt foolish standing there with sword in hand over an eight-year-old orphan. He sheathed it, glowering so the boy would see that he would suffer no nonsense. I ought to give him a good beating at the least, he thought, but the child looked so pitiful he could not bring himself to hit him. He glanced around the camp. The fire was burning merrily within a neat circle of rocks. The horses had been brushed, and clothes were hanging from the elm, drying above the flames. УWhat are those doing there?Ф
УI washed them,Ф the boy said. УAnd I groomed the horses, made the fire, and caught this fish. I would have raised your pavilion, but I couldnТt find one.Ф
УThereТs my pavilion.Ф Dunk swept a hand above his head, at the branches of the tall elm that loomed above them.
УThatТs a tree,Ф the boy said, unimpressed.
УItТs all the pavilion a true knight needs. I would sooner sleep under the stars than in some smoky tent.Ф
УWhat if it rains?Ф
УThe tree will shelter me.Ф
УTrees leak.Ф
Dunk laughed. УSo they do. Well, if truth be told, I lack the coin for a pavilion. And youТd best turn that fish, or it will be burned on the bottom and raw on the top. YouТd never make a kitchen boy.Ф
УI would if I wanted,Ф the boy said, but he turned the fish.
УWhat happened to your hair?Ф Dunk asked of him.
УThe maesters shaved it off.Ф Suddenly selfconscious, the boy pulled up the hood of his dark brown cloak, covering his head.
Dunk had heard that they did that sometimes, to treat lice or rootworms or certain sicknesses. УAre you ill?Ф
УNo,Ф said the boy. УWhatТs your name?Ф
УDunk,Ф he said.
The wretched boy laughed aloud, as if that was the funniest thing heТd ever heard. УDunk?Ф he said. УSer Dunk? ThatТs no name for a knight. Is it short for Duncan?Ф
Was it? The old man had called him just Dunk for as long as he could recall, and he did not remember much of his life before. УDuncan, yes,Ф he said. УSer Duncan of . . .У Dunk had no other name, nor any house; Ser Arlan had found him living wild in the stews and alleys of Flea Bottom. He had never known his father or mother. What was he to say? УSer Duncan of Flea BottomФ did not sound very knightly. He could take Pennytree, but what if they asked him where it was? Dunk had never been to Pennytree, nor had the old man talked much about it. He frowned for a moment, and then blurted out, УSer Duncan the Tall.Ф He was tall, no one could dispute that, and it sounded puissant.
Though the little sneak did not seem to think so. УI have never heard of any Ser Duncan the Tall.Ф
УDo you know every knight in the Seven Kingdoms, then?Ф
The boy looked at him boldly. УThe good ones.Ф
УIТm as good as any. After the tourney, theyТll all know that. Do you have a name, thief?Ф
The boy hesitated. УEgg,Ф he said.
Dunk did not laugh. His head does look like an egg. Small boys can be cruel, and grown men as well. УEgg,Ф he said, УI should beat you bloody and send you on your way, but the truth is, I have no pavilion and I have no squire either. If youТll swear to do as youТre told, IТll let you serve me for the tourney. After that, well, weТll see. If I decide youТre worth your keep, youТll have clothes on your back and food in your belly. The clothes might be roughspun and the food salt beef and salt fish, and maybe some venison from time to time where there are no foresters about, but you wonТt go hungry. And I promise not to beat you except when you deserve it.Ф
Egg smiled. УYes, my lord.Ф
УSer,Ф Dunk corrected. УI am only a hedge knight.Ф He wondered if the old man was looking down on him. I will teach him the arts of battle, the same as you taught me, ser. He seems a likely lad, might be one day heТll make a knight.
The fish was still a little raw on the inside when they ate it, and the boy had not removed all the bones, but it still tasted a world better than hard salt beef.
Egg soon fell asleep beside the dying fire. Dunk lay on his back nearby, his big hands behind his head, gazing up at the night sky. He could hear distant music from the tourney grounds, half a mile away. The stars were everywhere, thousands and thousands of them. One fell as he was watching, a bright green streak that flashed across the black and then was gone.
A falling star brings luck to him who sees it, Dunk thought. But the rest of them are all in their pavilions by now, staring up at silk instead of sky. So the luck is mine alone.

In the morning, he woke to the sound of a cock crowing. Egg was still there, curled up beneath the old manТs second-best cloak. Well, the boy did not run off during the night, thatТs a start. He prodded him awake with his foot. УUp. ThereТs work to do.Ф The boy rose quick enough, rubbing his eyes. УHelp me saddle Sweetfoot,Ф Dunk told him.
УWhat about breakfast?Ф
УThereТs salt beef. After weТre done.Ф
УIТd sooner eat the horse,Ф Egg said. УSer.Ф
УYouТll eat my fist if you donТt do as youТre told. Get the brushes. TheyТre in the saddle sack. Yes, that one.Ф
Together they brushed out the palfreyТs sorrel coat, hefted Ser ArlanТs best saddle over her back, and cinched it tight. Egg was a good worker once he put his mind to it, Dunk saw.
УI expect IТll be gone most of the day,Ф he told the boy as he mounted. УYouТre to stay here and put the camp in order. Make sure no other thieves come nosing about.Ф
УCan I have a sword to run them off with?Ф Egg asked. He had blue eyes, Dunk saw, very dark, almost purple. His bald head made them seem huge, somehow.
УNo,Ф said Dunk. УA knifeТs enough. And you had best be here when I come back, do you hear me? Rob me and run off and IТll hunt you down, I swear I will. With dogs.Ф
УYou donТt have any dogs,Ф Egg pointed out.
УIТll get some,Ф said Dunk. УJust for you.Ф He turned SweetfootТs head toward the meadow and moved off at a brisk trot, hoping the threat would be enough to keep the boy honest. Save for the clothes on his back, the armor in his sack, and the horse beneath him, everything Dunk owned in the world was back at that camp. I am a great fool to trust the boy so far, but it is no more than the old man did for me, he reflected. The Mother must have sent him to me so that I could pay my debt.
As he crossed the field, be heard the ring of hammers from the riverside, where carpenters were nailing together jousting barriers and raising a lofty viewing stand. A few new pavilions were going up as well, while the knights who had come earlier slept off last nightТs revels or sat to break their fasts. Dunk could smell woodsmoke, and bacon as well.