"Jody Lynn Nye - The Old Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nye Jody Lynn)

The Old Fire
Jody Lynn Nye
┬л^┬╗



Mev clenched her hands together to keep from jumping into the
arena after her daughter. At ten years of age, Kitra was so small, so
delicate, Mev worried about her getting hurt. But this was the final
examination. If Kitra was ever to prove herself, this was the time.
The little girl stood at one side of the sandy expanse, taking big
breaths that made her shoulders heave under the oversized leather
tunic. Suddenly, she sprang into action.

"Eeee!" Kitra shrieked, bearing down on her opponent, her little
sword raised in both hands above her head. "Take that! And that!"

The other child, taken by surprise, put up a poor fight. In no time
at all, Kitra was holding the bigger boy down with her foot. She
pointed the blunted sword at his throat and shrilled, "Surrender or
die!"

"That's my girl," Mev said, brushing a tear from the corner of her
eye. The child not only looked just like her, with her broad, pointed
chin and eager black eyes, but she was a chip off the old tilting block.
Mev was so proud she felt her heart would burst. From the hubbub
coming from the judges' enclosure near the barrier, she thought it was
a sure thing that Kitra would be accepted for junior combat training.
The other parents, most of them farmers, millers, coopers and
shopkeepers, gathered up their disappointed youngsters, and went
back about their business. They weren't really cut out for the warrior
trade. Kitra, on the other hand, had just proved she was fit to carry on
a proud family tradition. Mev might not be in the adventuring
business any more, but she was giving the world its next heroine.

Something rapped Mev on the shoulder, and she turned around,
hand automatically reaching for the sword at her belt. Secondary
responses took hold in a moment, telling her that there wasn't a sword
there-hadn't been for years-and that knocking the head off one of her
neighbors was frowned upon. Instead, she folded her arms and stared
balefully at the man who had touched her. He was a stranger.

"And who the blazes are you?" Mev asked.

"You're Mev Grayshield?" The man asked, looking her up and
down. "I was expecting someone moreтАж"

Mev put her hands on her hips. True, those hips were somewhat
more rounded than they'd been when she was part of the attack force
that brought down the Fendarian citadel ten years before, but