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

Chamber of the Ordeal.
Remembering the realness of her vision, Kel shivered. She checked her hands to make sure there were
no ink blotches on them, then picked up a shirt.
When Kel's maid, Lalasa, returned from signing a lease for her dressmaker's shop, she found Kel and
Neal trying to fit Kel's weapons-cleaning kit into a trunk that was nearly full. After shedding tears over
the news - Lalasa was sentimental - she banished them, saying the palace staff would see to everything.
There was nothing to do but go to lunch and share their tidings with their friends. They talked there until
the second bell of the afternoon about where they all would go.
When Kel returned to her room, only her night-things remained. Everything else had gone to her new
quarters, though she wasn't to report for duty until noon the next day. "I like to sleep late when I can,"
Raoul had explained. "It's not something I get to do often. Neither will you, so take my advice, and sleep
in."
Lalasa sat by the window, sewing basket open beside her, a wad of green cloth in her lap. A stack of
neatly folded green clothes lay on a stool beside her.
"I took the liberty of getting your new things from the quartermasters for the King's Own, my lady," she
said as Kel closed the door. "These are some of Lord Raoul's spares - he gave word to use them - but
grain sacks have a better fit." She clipped a thread and shook out the garment, a tunic in Goldenlake
green bordered in yellow. Though Kel would ride with the Own, she served Raoul the knight, not the
Knight Commander. "Try these, and the breeches," Lalasa ordered. She held out both. "I measured them
against your clothes, but I want to double-check."
Kel stripped off tunic and breeches and donned the new clothes. Something had changed her retiring
Lalasa into this brisk young female. Kel suspected that Lalasa's getting her shop and dress orders from
Queen Thayet may have caused it. They had both changed since their long, frightening walk down the
side of Balor's Needle six weeks ago. Kel thought that Businesswoman Lalasa was a treat; she still
wasn't sure about Squire Keladry.
Lalasa gave the clothes a twitch and nodded. "Now these." Kel tried on two more sets of Goldenlake
breeches and tunics while her maid pinned and straightened. Kel's shirts, at least, would be the same
white ones she'd worn as a page; it was one less piece of clothing to try on.
"You're not to take things to those sack stitchers at the palace tailors'", maid informed mistress. "They
come straight to me, and not a penny will I take for the work." Her brown eyes filled with tears. "Oh, my
lady," she said, her voice wobbling. "Out with all those men, and just a dog and some little birds and that
dreadful horse to look after you."
Kel had to chuckle. "The animals look after me just fine," she said, offering the older girl her
handkerchief. "And surely you'll be too busy to work on my clothes."
"Never," Lalasa said firmly, and blew her nose. "Never, ever."
Kel looked at the sparrows perched on her bed. "I need to talk to you, all who can come," she said.
"Crown? Freckle? Will you get the others?"
The chief female and male of the flock that used to nest outside Kel's window in the pages' wing sped
outside. The sparrows already in the room found perches. The rest of the flock soon arrived.
Kel shook her head. Even after four years she felt odd talking to them as she would to humans, but
they understood far more than normal birds. Ever since Daine, known as the Wildmage, had come to the
palace, her magical influence had changed every animal resident. Kel's dog Jump had refused to live with
Daine, and deliberately worked his way into Lord Wyldon's good graces so the training master would let
him roam with the pages. Peachblossom had negotiated his no-spur agreement with Kel through Daine.
The sparrows had moved in with Kel, who'd been feeding them, with the first winter snows. In less than a
year they were defending her and acting as scouts for a spidren-hunting party. They had even found
Lalasa on Balor's Needle and fetched Kel to help.
"I mentioned this, remember," Kel told the flock. "I have to go with my knight-master. It'll be hard to
keep up. I don't know how often we'll be here. Do you want to leave your nesting grounds? Salma told
me she'll go on feeding you, so you won't go hungry. You don't have to stay with me. It's not that I don't