"John Morressy - The Juggler" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morressy John)

place. To be alone in the forest was bad, and to go hungry was most unpleasant. But to spend the rest of
his life working among people who would not allow him to do what he did well and wanted to do better and
better-this was a dismal prospect.
He thought and thought, drifted off to sleep and woke again to think some more, and at last made his
decision. It was good to be safe, but one could pay too high a price for safety. Before dawn, while Alan
was still snoring regularly, Beran rose and slipped away.
From that day he was a wayfarer. Days became months, and the months passed into years, and still he
traveled without family, home, or friends, sometimes with a companion but more often alone, through a
world where danger was everywhere and kindness and compassion were as rare as a midsummer frost.
The life of the road was different from anything he had known before. In the village, everyone was much
alike, although he had not noticed it as clearly as he now did. The villagers had had their different ways, but
they had all dressed alike, used the same phrases, complained of the same problems, voiced the same
hopes. The people he saw and met on the road were of all kinds.
There were laborers who had broken their bond and fled their village, and fugitives from the king's justice.
Such men were dangerous, and he avoided them. There were messengers, riding in great haste on worldly
business, stopping for no one, riding down any who blocked their path. There were peddlers and beg-gars,
cobblers and tinkers and healers and honest workingmen, musicians and bearwards and animal keepers.
Some of them were kindly men, full of jokes and songs and stories, and willing to share their scanty store
with him in return for a few simple feats of juggling, and sometimes out of pure kindness. But many were
hard and cruel, and drove him off with a threat and a blow, or set a dog on him.
There were pilgrims, some of them penitents in chains and fetters making their slow and painful way to
distant holy places to atone for wrongs they had done, some of them journeying to fulfill a promise made in
time of need or illness, or to give thanks for heaven-sent aid. Some, rich and mighty, traveled in great state,
with a baggage train of food and wines and fine plate and rich garments following for their ease and
convenience. And some who bore the scrip and staff were actually discontented laborers seeking new
opportunity, ready to throw aside their pilgrim trap-pings and take up their tools again when safely beyond
their rightful lord's reach.
There were the king's men, and the great lords, and they were best given a wide berth. They traveled in
large companies, with archers and men-at-arms pre-ceding them to make their way secure, many
horse-men, and wagons laden with food and wine and heaped documents of state. In some of the wagons
were ladies of the court. They did not want com-moners near them, and the commoners were kept far off.
There were the beggars who feigned leprosy or blindness or covered their bodies with hideous false
sores, or dragged themselves along the ground as crip-ples, crying out for alms. Some others pretended to
be maddened by spirits, or driven into fits. A few of these frauds were clever and good-natured, and
generous to a hungry boy.
And there were criminals of every kind. The ones he feared most were those who simply killed and
robbed when the opportunity presented itself, squandered the loot at inn and brothel, and set out to look for
the next victim. He knew that such men would welcome him like an old friend, joke with him, and kill him
for the price of the rags on his back.
The first winter was the hardest time, and more than once Beran was certain he would freeze to death.
He always managed to find some kind of shelter, but for months on end, he was never warm. Even with
coins in his purse, there were many times when he could not purchase food, and times when he dared not.
Out of necessity he learned to steal. His hands were quick and deft, and he was fast of foot, so he had
success. He stole seldom, only in dire need, and al-ways worked alone. He was always cautious. The
pun-ishment for theft was summary and severe.
He practiced juggling at every opportunity. Some-times he entertained others at a roadside resting place,
or at an inn, and they praised his skill and gave him a place by the fire and a share of their food. But even
when he was being praised and rewarded, he knew that his tricks were simple and he had much to learn
about juggling.
He had other things to learn, as well. He quickly learned that a person could smile and speak fair words