"Legacy Of Gird - 01 - Surrender None" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

says the steward didnТt seem angry, not like she thought he would be.Ф
УI donТt think he is.Ф Suddenly his news burst out of him. УGuess what the
sergeant saidЧmaybe I can train to be a soldier! I could have a swordЧФ Excited
as he was, he didnТt notice her withdrawal, the shock on her face. УSometimes
they even ride horses, he said. He said I was big enough, and strong, andЧФ Her
stiff silence held him at last; he stared at her. УMother?Ф
УNo!Ф She caught his arm, and half-dragged him down the lane to the house.
The argument went on all evening. His fatherТs first reaction to the story of
the plums was to reach for his belt. УI donТt brawl,Ф he said. УAnd I didnТt
raise my sons to be brawlers.Ф
Arin, as usual, stood up for him. УDa, that RaufТs a bad lot, you know that.
SoТs the steward: theyТve got him in stocks this night, and Sikan too.Ф
УAnd IТll have their fathers down on me, did you think of that? OregТs no man to
blame his own son, even if Rauf tells the tale aright. If Gird hadnТt fought
back, Oreg wouldТve known he owed me sommat, a bit of bacon even. And SikanТs
fatherЧI want no quarrel with him; his wife has the only pardon for dyecraft in
this village. As for this wayЧitТs no good. We canТt be fighting each other; the
worldТs hard enough without that. TheyТll have to know I punished Gird, and IТll
have to go to them and apologize.Ф
So it was a whipping on top of his bruises, and no supper as well as no lunch.
Gird had expected as much; he saw from ArinТs wink that he would have a scrap to
eat later, whatever Arin could sneak to him without being caught. But his father
was as unhappy as his mother to hear of the sergeantТs offer of training.
УItТs never good to come into notice like that. Besides, we follow the Lady:
would you take sword against your own folk, Gird? Break the village peace in
blood and iron?Ф But before he could decide whether it was safe to answerЧthe
answer heТd thought of, while waiting for his father to come from the fieldsЧhis
father shrugged. УBut if the steward comes, what can I say? They have the right
to take you, no matter what I think about it. The best I can hope for is that
the steward forgets it.Ф
The steward did not forget. Gird spent the next day wrestling with the familyТs
smallest scytheЧstill too long for himЧmowing his fatherТs section of the
meadow. He knew heТd been sent there to get him out of sight, away from the
other village boys. He knew his mother had baked two sweet cakes for RaufТs
family and SikanТs, and his father had taken them over in the early morning. It
was hot, the steamy heat of full summer, and the cold porridge of his breakfast
had not filled the hollows from yesterdayТs fast. But above him, in the great
field, his father was working, able to see if he shirked.
He kept at it doggedly, hacking uneven chunks where his brother could lay a
clean swathe. There had to be a way. He paused to rub the great curved blade
with the bit of stone his father had given him, and listened to the change in
sound it made on different parts of the blade. When he looked sideways up the
slope to the arable, he saw his father talking to another of the village men.
Gird leaned on the scythe handle, the blade angled high above him, and picked a
bur from between his toes.
When he looked again, his father had started back up the arable. Gird dared not
move out of the sun to rest, but he tipped his head back to get the breeze.
Something rustled in the tall grass ahead of him. Rat? Bird? He scratched the
back of one leg with the other foot, glanced upslope again, and sighed. Someday
he would be a man, and if he wasnТt a soldier, heТd be a farmer, and able to