"Tamora Pierce - Protector Of The Small 3 - Squire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pierce Tamora)

The wagons from the palace arrived shortly before noon. Kel got to work ladling out soup in a mess
tent. Raoul stood beside her to issue bread to the diners as they filed by. Only when everyone else had
been served did they eat.
"You won't get a traditional squire's education with me," he told her between mouthfuls of soup.
"Serving refreshments in meetings, well, you'll do that. It's the best way for you to hear what's said and
who says it. I'll want your impressions afterward, so be sharp. But waiting on me hand and foot is plain
silly. So's caring for my horses in the field. For one thing, I like to do it. For another, you'll be too busy.
Tend to your own mounts first."
Kel nodded. After she swallowed a mouthful, she asked, "Why Rider Groups, my lord? Aren't there
enough of us?" He had led all one hundred warriors of Third Company into the forest that morning, not
counting the servingmen.
"A different tool for a different job," explained Raoul. Flyndan, seated across from them, made a face
and nodded. "We're conspicuous, in our blues with the pretty silver mail and all," Raoul continued. "Our
horses are big - good for open ground, slow over broken terrain and forest. Third Company does the
main sweep, talking to other villages and making noise. The Rider Groups scout on our left and right
flanks - our sides. Their little ponies will cover rocky terrain, marshes, and so on. The enemy will be on
the move. Once we know where they are, we'll send half the company around to their rear, to set up a
trap. Then we drive 'em into it."
"We've done it before," Dom told Kel. He sat with Flyndan, polishing his empty bowl with a crust of
bread. The smile he directed at Kel made her heart turn over, just as Neal's smile did. "We clank around,
make a lot of fuss, let the bandits think they'll always be two steps ahead. Then we close the net and haul
them off to royal justice."
"They'll have to sing a sweet song to get out of a hanging," Raoul said grimly, picking up his empty
dishes.
Kel shuddered: she hated hangings. No matter what the crime was, she saw no malice in those hooded
and bound silhouettes dangling against the sky. Worse, to her mind, was the thought that the condemned
knew they were to die, that a day and time had been set, that strangers planned each step of their killing.
Flyndan misunderstood her shudder. "That's right. It's not glamour and glory. It's hard, mud-slogging
work. If you wanted it easy, you should have taken a desk knight."
"Stop it, Flyn," Raoul said, his voice firm. "See her in action before you judge."
"I know, she rallied those lads while we handled the spidren nest. You'd think she'd be over this
warrior thing by now." Flyndan carried his dishes away.
"Kel?" Raoul asked.
Kel was buttering a roll. She knew what he wanted. "I've heard it before, my lord."
Raoul patted her shoulder and took his dishes to the scrubbers.
"He's not the easiest second in command, but he's good at it." Kel looked up to meet Dom's very blue
eyes. "You need someone a bit stiff to offset my lord. He's too easygoing, sometimes. Flyn will let up,
once he sees this isn't a hobby for you."
Kel shrugged. "I don't need to be liked, Dom. I just need to work."
When she rose with her dishes, he did as well. "And you've a knack for it. I heard what you did with
the spidrens, your first year. And then with the hill bandits, your second summer."
Kel glanced up at Dom, startled. "How did you know about that?" She handed her bowl, plate, and
cup to the dishwashers. One of them was Qasim. He smiled at Kel and Dom, and meekly bore a
scolding from the village woman beside him, who said it took more than a swipe with a cloth to get a
bowl clean.
"How did I know?" Dom asked, and chuckled. "My cousin the Meathead, remember? He wrote
about both in great detail. I feel sorry for him these days, though."
"But he's got the Lioness for knight-master!" protested Kel.
Dom grinned down at her. "You think that's fun'? Maybe we're not talking about the same Lioness.
The one I know rides with us a lot - my lord's one of her best friends. She's the one with the temper. And