"George R. R. Martin - Ice and Fire 0.6 - The Sworn Sword" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin George R R)

ridden a dozen yards before Bennis caught him. тАЬI best come see you donтАЩt get hanged.тАЭ He pushed a
fresh sourleaf into his mouth. тАЬPast that clump oтАЩ sandwillows, the whole right bank is spider land.тАЭ

тАЬIтАЩll stay on our side.тАЭ Dunk wanted no trouble with the Lady of the Coldmoat. At Standfast you heard
ill things of her.The Red Widow, she was called, for the husbands she had put into the ground. Old Sam
Stoops said she was a witch, a poisoner, and worse. Two years ago she had sent her knights across the
stream to seize an Osgrey man for stealing sheep. тАЬWhen mтАЩlord rode to Coldmoat to demand him back,
he was told to look for him at the bottom of the moat,тАЭ Sam had said. тАЬSheтАЩd sewn poor Dake in a bag oтАЩ
rocks and sunk him. тАЩTwas after that Ser Eustace took Ser Bennis into service, to keep them spiders off
his lands.тАЭ

Thunder kept a slow, steady pace beneath the broiling sun. The sky was blue and hard, with no hint of
cloud anywhere to be seen. The course of the stream meandered around rocky knolls and forlorn
willows, through bare brown hills and fields of dead and dying grain. An hour upstream from the bridge,
they found themselves riding on the edge of the small Osgrey forest called WatтАЩs Wood. The greenery
looked inviting from afar, and filled DunkтАЩs head with thoughts of shady glens and chuckling brooks,
but when they reached the trees they found them thin and scraggly, with drooping limbs. Some of the
great oaks were shedding leaves, and half the pines had turned as brown as Ser Bennis, with rings of
dead needles girdling their trunks.Worse and worse, thought Dunk.One spark, and this will all go up like
tinder.

For the moment, though, the tangled underbrush along the Chequy Water was still thick with thorny
vines, nettles, and tangles of briarwhite and young willow. Rather than fight through it, they crossed the
dry streambed to the Coldmoat side, where the trees had been cleared away for pasture. Amongst the
parched brown grasses and faded wildflowers, a few black-nosed sheep were grazing. тАЬNever knew an
animal stupid as a sheep,тАЭ Ser Bennis commented. тАЬThink theyтАЩre kin to you, lunk?тАЭ When Dunk did not
reply, he laughed his chicken laugh again.

file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/George%20R%20R%20M...nd%20%20Fire%200.6%20-%20The%20Sworn%20Sword.html (8 of 78)16-2-2006 15:48:57
 Legends II



Half a league farther south, they came upon the dam.

It was not large as such things went, but it looked strong. Two stout wooden barricades had been thrown
across the stream from bank to bank, made from the trunks of trees with the bark still on. The space
between them was filled with rocks and earth and packed down hard. Behind the dam the flow was
creeping up the banks and spilling off into a ditch that had been cut through Lady WebberтАЩs fields. Dunk
stood in his stirrups for a better look. The glint of sun on water betrayed a score of lesser channels,
running off in all directions like a spiderтАЩs web.They are stealing our stream. The sight filled him with
indignation, especially when it dawned on him that the trees must surely have been taken from WatтАЩs
Wood.

тАЬSee what you went and did, lunk,тАЭ said Bennis. тАЬCouldnтАЩt have it that the stream dried up, no. Might be
this starts with water, but itтАЩll end with blood. Yours and mine, most like.тАЭ The brown knight drew his
sword. тАЬWell, no help for it now. ThereтАЩs your thrice-damned diggers. Best we put some fear in them.тАЭ
He raked his garron with his spurs and galloped through the grass.

Dunk had no choice but to follow. Ser ArlanтАЩs longsword rode his hip, a good straight piece of steel.If