"Tamora Pierce - Protector Of The Small 1 - First Test" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pierce Tamora)

Tamora Pierce

Protector of the Small 01



First Test
Keladry (known as Kel) is the first girl to take advantage of the decree that permits girls to train for the knighthood.
The only thing that can stop her is Lord Wyldon, the training master of pages and squires. He does not think girls
should be knights and puts her on probation for one year. It is a trial period that no male page has to endure and one
that separates the friendly Kel even more from her fellow trainees. But Kel is not someone to underestimate...


ISBN
Copyright ┬й by Tamora Pierce.

This e-book is not for sale!!!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Acknowledgments for this book, and this new series, reach back over years. I owe a debt of gratitude
to Jean Karl and Claire Smith, who oversaw the publication of the first eight books set in Tortall, and
made me think I might have a few more Tortallan stories still in me. My gratitude also goes to Mallory
Loehr and Craig Tenney, who did so much to bring about this latest installment in my burgeoning history
of the Eastern Lands.
I would also like to thank the kids who attended my appearance at the San Ramon Public Library in
San Ramon, California, one nice fall day in 1995, who made me realize that I should stop thinking about
Kel's story and write it; and my online fans, including the loyal members of my AOL fan club, whose
eagerness for Kel's story buoyed me up through a long, exhausting year.
For my Spouse-Creature, Tim, our buddy Raquel, and my e-friend Rick, my gratitude for all the
support, encouragement, ideas, and last-minute reads and fixes, without which I might not have what
sanity I yet possess. I would also like to express gratitude to Eyewitness Books for wonderful research
books with pictures, and to the cast and crew of The X-Files and the movie Pump Up the Volume, for
providing me with rich sources of ideas.
Lastly and most profoundly, this is for Kelly Riggio. I'm sorry you had to wait so long for it, and I hope
it is worth the wait.
Chapter 1:

DECISIONS

Alanna the Lioness, the King's Champion, could hardly contain her glee. Baron Piers of Mindelan had
written to King Jonathan to say that his daughter wished to be a page. Alanna fought to sit still as she
watched Wyldon of Cavall, the royal training master, read the baron's letter. Seated across his desk from
them, the king watched the training master as sharply as his Champion did. Lord Wyldon was known for
his dislike of female warriors.
It had been ten long years since the proclamation that girls might attempt a page's training. Alanna had
nearly given up hope that such a girl - or the kind of family that would allow her to do so - existed in
Tortall, but at last she had come forward. Keladry of Mindelan would not have to hide her sex for eight
years as Alanna had done. Keladry would prove to the world that girls could be knights. And she would
not be friendless. Alanna had plans to help Keladry through the first few years. It never occurred to the
Champion that anyone might object.