"Pierce, Tamora - The Circle Opens 01 - Magic Steps" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pierce Tamora)

he had rested all afternoon, Erdogun and Sandry fell into the habit of meeting
in a nearby study to deal with the work that built up. In the quiet afternoon
hours, Sandry took the household accounts over from Erdogun, with his blessing.
It gave her something useful to do and gave him less work
Once the duke grew well enough for Healer Comfrey to agree that a little
business would not tax him, he joined Sandry and Erdogun for an hour, then two,
then three. When it was judged that he was strong enough to leave the second
floor and go downstairs, they set up a workroom there. The baron labored over
heaps of docu ments while the duke read reports and Sandry attended to the
running of a large castle. Often the duke and Erdogun discussed matters
involving Emelan and met with various officials. Many times they asked Sandry's
opinion. They explained it as wanting the views of a mage or another noble, but
Sandry wondered if the duke wanted to see how her mind worked. She couldn't imag
ine why he might want her ideas on the proper scale of punishments for theft,
but she respected as well as loved him and answered him as seriously as she
could.
The afternoon that followed Jamar Rokat's murder sped by. All too soon it was
time for Sandry to meet Pasco at the fishing village. Oama and Kwaben awaited
her with her mare, Russet, when she emerged from the residence. Riding through
the city in mid-afternoon was a slower matter than at dawn. There were horses
and wagons to be got around, stray animals, and all kinds of people. The talk on
every corner seemed to be about the merchant's very messy death.
She had meant to be early for the fishers' return, but to her surprise most of
the boats were home and in the process of unloading their contents. Each crew
had brought in as much fish as their boats might carry. The entire village had
turned out to help load baskets of fish into carts that would take them to the
city for sale.
Pasco Acalon stood on the beach, his jaw hanging open.
Sandry drew rein beside him. "Now do you believe you have magic?" she asked.
He started with surpriseЧhe had not heard her ride upЧand bowed hastily. "Lady,
my mother has never heard of dancing mages. She was once a captain of the
Provost's Guard. If she never heard of a thing, then how can it exist? This,
this was just luck, pure and simple. It had to turn sometime. Whatever drove the
fish offЧ,"
A burly man in fisherman's clothes strode toward them, a grin on his dark face.
He grabbed Pasco's hands and folded them around a leather pouch. "Well, lad, you
did the trick." He looked at the boats, shaking his head. "This day's work puts
food on our plates through Death's Night, once it's smoked. And Gran says the
charm holds till the next full moonЧenough to make up what we've lost this
year." He thumped Pasco on the shoulder, bowed quickly to Sandry, then strode
back toward the workers.
The boy poured the contents of the bag into his palm and gasped. "Five silver
crescents!" he cried. "Master Netmender, you said only one crescent!"
"It's bad luck to underpay a mage," the fisherman called back over his shoulder.
"Just don't get greedy next year! Hi, Osa, be careful with that basket!"
"Mage?" whispered Pasco. "Next year?"
"Well?" Sandry asked the boy, nudging him with a booted foot as he continued to
stare at the boats. "I know magic when I see it. So do these people. You need
proper training, before your power starts breaking out in ways you don't want it
to. And it will. Power's funny that way."