"Tamora Pierce - Protector Of The Small 4 - Lady Knight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pierce Tamora)

Kel sighed and walked into Peachblossom's stall. "You're getting slow," she informed the gelding.
"Time was you'd have had his whole arm in your teeth."
Peachblossom snorted in derision and backed up.
"Not that I'd mind," Kel admitted, looking at the lad. "A good bite would keep him from hitting people
with that arm for a while. But I suppose it would make a fuss." She propped her hands on her hips,
disgusted with herself. Why had she done this?
Even as she asked herself if she'd run mad, she knew that she couldn't have done anything else. She
couldn't walk away when someone was bullied.
Kel inspected the boy. Clothes, particularly shoes, were required. His present rags would have to be
burned. He needed a bath and a haircut. He probably had lice. Shaving his head and scrubbing him with
lice-killing soap would eliminate that problem. He didn't look old enough to need shaving anywhere else.
And he needed a healer.
Kel looked over at Hoshi's stall, where Jump gnawed a bone. Chances were that it had not been
intended for his supper, since there was quite a bit of meat on it. She only hoped the inn's staff didn't
know who the thief was.
"Jump, will you get Neal, please?" Kel asked the dog. Jump thrust his bone under the straw, then
trotted out of the stable. The boy followed the dog's movements with wide eyes but made no comment
that might draw Kel's attention.
"What's your name?" she asked. "And how old are you?"
The boy retreated under Peachblossom's belly. He watched her warily from between the gelding's
forelegs.
After a moment he said, "Tobe, miss. Tobeis Boon. I think I'm nine."
Kel repeated, "Boon?"
The boy nodded. "Auld Eulama said I musta been a boon to someun, though she din't know who."
"Eulama?" asked Kel.
"Midwife as reared me, best's she knowed."
Kel scratched her head. "Whose opinion is that?" she wanted to know, intrigued by his frank way of
talking. "That she did the best she knew?"
"All Queensgrace, lady. They all say't. Way they talk, it din't do me much good." It seemed Tobeis -
Tobe - was as intrigued by Kel as she was by him. He inched forward.
Kel indicated the boy's guardian. "It's not so long ago that I convinced him not to savage everyone in
reach. I've known him eight years. I was sure he'd kill you."
"Aww, he's a good un." Tobe wrapped a casual hand around as much of Peachblossom's right foreleg
as he could manage. "Ain't nobody likes Alvik - me master, there."
Here came Alvik himself with a writing board, quill, inkpot, a sheet of grimy paper, sealing wax and a
candle. Kel briskly signed Tobe's indenture papers, handed over the coins, and watched the innkeeper
also sign, then seal the document. As soon as Kel had the completed bill of Tobe's indenture sale in hand,
Alvik fled. He passed Neal and Jump on their way in.
"You know, Mindelan, our lives would be easier if the dog just broke down and talked," Kel's friend
announced. "I was winning that card game." He glared down at Jump. "There was no need to grab me."
Kel smiled. "If you're not bleeding, he was being nice, and it's not fair for you to play cards with
ordinary folk." To Tobe she explained, "He remembers all the cards dealt."
Neal looked to see who she spoke to, and stared. "Kel, that monster has a boy under his belly."
"That monster hasn't touched him," replied Kel. Neal had every reason to expect the worst of the big
gelding. "Will you take a look at the boy? Tobe - Tobeis Boon, this is my friend, Neal." She didn't give
Neal's titles, not wanting to make the boy uncomfortable. "Tobe, my friend is a healer. I want him to look
at you."
 "Not while he's in there," protested Neal.
At the same time the boy said, "He's no healer, just some noble."
Neal glared at Tobe. "I'm a healer and a noble." He looked at Kel. "What have you done now,