"L. E. Modesitt - Corean Chronicles 1 - Legacies" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

wide smile. "You've been watching us, haven't you?"
'Yes, sir." Alucius did not move from the hassock.
'Supper'll be ready before long." There was a twinkle in Royalt's eyes as he
watched his grandson. "We're having an apple pie. You can smell it."
 'I know. I helped mother pick the best baskets at market. This afternoon I
cored the apples and sliced them."
The herder frowned slightly. "How did you pick the apples?"
'I was careful. I just said some baskets looked good." Alucius put both
slippered feet on the polished wooden floor. "You said I had to be careful."
'I did. A good herder has some of the Talent, and most people are not
comfortable with it. They especially don't like children with it."
'I was careful," Alucius said again.
'I'm sure you were, boy." Royalt grinned. "You think you can beat me?"
'Probably not yet," Alucius replied. "I can't see far enough ahead."
'None of us can, boy. We'd always like to see farther than we can. That's
being human." Royalt took the board from the shelf and set it on the table,
followed by the plain lorken box that held the pieces.
Alucius stood and pulled the hassock to the side of the table opposite his
grandsire. Then he knelt on the hassock.
'You want black or green?" asked Royalt.
'Don't we choose?"
Royalt laughed. "You pick. I'll choose."
The boy took two of the footwarriors, one green and one black, and then
lowered his hands below the table, switching the pieces between hands several
times before lifting both hands, backs up, and presenting them to his
grandfather. Royalt touched Alucius's right hand. The boy turned his hand over,
opening it and showing the black piece. Then he turned his left hand and
displayed the green footwarrior.
'Black it is."
Alucius quickly set up the pieces, beginning with the foot warriors in the first
row, and ending with the soarer queen and sander king.
'Do you have any questions before we start?" asked Royalt.
'No, sir... except why is the soarer a woman and the most powerful? Sanders
are powerful, too, and they kill nightsheep. The soarers don't." He paused. "Do
they?"
'No, the soarers don't." The older man laughed. "I can't tell you why the
soarer is the most powerful piece. It's always been that way."
Alucius waited for his grandfather's move. Not surprisingly, it was the fourth
footwarrior, two squares forward. Alucius matched the move, so that the two
blocked each other. His grandfather moved the pteridon out, and Alucius
countered by moving his fifth footwarrior a single square forward.
By several more moves, Royalt was smiling. "You have been watching. You're
playing like your mother, but that last move was like Wor-lin's."
Royalt attacked, taking Alucius's lesser alector, but losing a pteridon, and a
footwarrior, before capturing the boy's greater alector, at the cost of the other
pteridon.
'Supper's ready!" called Lucenda from the main room.
'We can finish after supper," Royalt suggested.
 Alucius studied the board before looking at his grandfather. "No, sir. You'll
win."