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

knees. "Are you mad?"
Tobe shook his head.
"Then why do this?" she asked, patient. "You're no good to either of us if you get sick or fall behind."
"Folk took interest in me afore, lady," replied the boy. "A merchant and a priestess. Soon as I was
gone from their sight, they forgot I was alive. Sometimes I think I jus' dreamed you. If I don't see you,
mayhap you'll vanish."
"I'm too solid to be a dream. Besides, I paid two copper nobles for your bond," Kel reminded him.
"Not to mention what we laid out for the sewing and the cobbler."
"Folk've given me nobles jus' for holdin' the stirrup when they mounted up," Tobe informed her. "Some
is so rich a noble means as much to them as a copper bit tool' to Alvik."
Kel sighed. "I'm not rich," she said, but it was for the sake of argument. Compared with this
mule-headed scrap of boyhood, she was rich. It was all she could do not to smile. She recognized the
determination in those bright blue eyes. It matched her own.
She evicted the sparrows from the shelter of her cloak and reached a hand down. When he gripped it,
Kel swung the boy up behind her. "Not a word of complaint," she told him. "Get under my cloak. It'll
keep the rain off."
This order he obeyed. Kel waited for the sparrows to tuck themselves under the front of her cloak,
then urged Peachblossom back to her place in line.
Neal, seeing her approach, opened his mouth.
"Not one word," Kel warned. "Tobe and I have reached an understanding."
Neal's lips twitched. "Why do I have the feeling you did most of the understanding?"
"Why do I have the feeling that if you give me a hard time, I'll tell all of our year-mates your family
nickname is Meathead?" Kel replied in kind.
"You resort to common insult because you have no stronger arguments to offer," retorted Neal. When
Kel opened her mouth, Neal raised a hand to silence her. "Nevertheless, I concede."
"Good," Kel said. "That's that."
"You got anything to eat?" enquired a voice from inside her cloak.
 1-14 April, 460 HE
Near the Scanran border


3

LONG, COLD ROAD

It was well past dark when they reached their next stop, the village of Wolfwood. "We're here for a
few days," Raoul told the younger knights. "Lady Alanna and the troops for the coast leave us here. So
will the troops and knights meant for the eastern border. Maybe we'll even be here long enough to dry
out."
"What's dry?" asked Faleron of King's Reach wearily.
"Good question," Lady Alanna said, stretching to get the kinks out of her spine. She and Neal
chorused, "Next question." The lady grinned at her former squire. "You rode with me too long,
Queenscove," she pointed out.
"And I learned things every step of the way, Lady Knight," said Neal with a bow.
Tobe offered to groom Peachblossom and Hoshi. Kel watched as the boy worked.
"You think he's a horse-mage?" Neal murmured. He'd tended his mounts and was ready to go inside.
"He's got wild magic with horses?"
"It seems so," Kel admitted, gathering her saddlebags. "Look how easy Peachblossom is with him."
Satisfied that Tobe needed no help, she followed Neal into the wayhouse, Jump and the sparrows trailing
behind.