"Recluce - 07 - The Chaos Balance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

аа "Oh..."
аа "Exactly." Nylan fed Dyliess a morsel of bread, although she'd already
eaten. Dyliess promptly gummed it and deposited starchy brown drool on
Nylan's hand.
аа "I was wondering," ventured the dark-haired former ship's pilot. "Is
there any way you could forge more bows? I mean, you started on the first
blades with the laser, but you managed to forge the others."
аа "There's cormclit left," Nylan acknowledged, "but it's a directional
heatshield composite. I had the demon's own time cutting it with a laser.
It just fragments into strands when I've tried to cut it with a chisel,
and bench shears just jam or chew it into shreds. Then there are the
alloys. I can't even soften the lightweight, high-temp ones, and those
were what I used for those bows." He shook his head. "I've tried, but. .
."
аа He frowned. Had that flash of flame-red been Ayrlyn headed down to the
kitchen?
аа "I thought I'd ask. We've only got sixteen of those killer bows."
Saryn coughed. All too many guards coughed through the winter, probably
from too much mouth breathing outside in the chill of the Roof of the
World. "We only lost one in the battle."
аа "You threatened to dismember any guard who lost one, even if she were
dying," said Huldran. "I remember that."
аа "I was right," Saryn said. "They're twice as good as anything the
locals have, and they're not replaceable."
а а"There's still too much up here that's not replaceable," Nylan
offered. "We need a better low-tech base."
аа "Like your sawmill?" Saryn grinned. "What comes after that?"
аа "I thought about a flour mill, but we're too high to grow grain-"
аа "He never stops thinking, does he?" The number two of the Westwind
guards finished her tea with a gulp.
аа There was too much to think about, reflected Nylan, from Ryba's
coldness to children to Ayrlyn, not to mention smithing. He'd still only
rough-formed the prosthetic foot for Daryn-something for a man would
certainly be low on Ryba's priority list, he suspected, far below weapons.
аа "Got to run," added Saryn. "We're going to see what it's like down
below near that grove of hardwoods off the lower meadow below the
brickworks. You remember those ironwood trees? They're lousy for
woodworking, but the healer says they'll make good charcoal. You did say
you needed charcoal."
аа "I did. We can't do much at the smithy without it."
аа "Daaaa..." injected Dyliess, lurching toward Nylan's mug again.
аа By the time he had intercepted her grasping fingers and had his tea
under control, Saryn was headed out of the great hall.
аа "She's a handful," said Huldran.
аа "Saryn? She's not bad."
аа "I meant your daughter." Huldran laughed. "Already, she has a mind of
her own."
аа Like her mother, Nylan thought, but he only said, "She does." Then he
finished the last of his own tea and a last morsel of cheese before
standing and lurching off the bench and toward the stairs to the tower's