"Sherwood Smith - Crown and Court Duet - 01 - Crown Duel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Sherwood)

Denlieff took our money and vanished."
I stopped and faced him. "What? Do we know that for certain? Could they have been delayedтАФor
ambushedтАФby Galdran?"

Bran shrugged. "I don't know. The only reliable informant we could send to find out would be Azmus."

"But isn't he still in the capital with Papa's letter to the King?"

Branaric nodded. "Awaiting the signal to deliver it and disperse copies through all the Court, just as Papa
ordered. But as to the mercenaries from Denlieff, both our messengers have come back and said the
commander isn't to be found. No one's even heard of him or his troop." Bran added sourly, "I thought all
along this was as risky as trusting skunks not to smell."

I nodded as we stopped by the empty kitchen and laid the Fire Sticks on the great table. "But Papa was
so certain they'd believe in our cause."

"Mercenaries don't have causesтАФor they wouldn't be swords for hire," Bran said. "We really need
someone trained to captain our people and teach us the latest fighting techniques."

"We can't hire anyone else; we haven't the gold," I said. "I just spent two days trying to work around the
sums we had to send for the taxes."

Bran raised his hands. "Then we are on our own, sister." I groaned as we walked the last few steps to the
old stewards' parlor, and I swatted aside the hanging. Then I stopped again and groaned louder. I'd
forgotten the broken window. All my careful piles of paper were strewn around the room like so much
snow.

Bran looked around and scratched his head. "I sure hope you wrote down your figures," he said with a
rueful smile.

"Of course I didn't," I muttered.

He slewed around and stared at me. "You didn't?"

"No. I hate writing. It's slow, and my letters are still ill formed, and the ink blobs up, and my fingers get
stiff in the cold. I simply separated all the villages' lists of resources and figured out who could give a bit
more. Those papers went in one pile. The villages that are overreached went in another pile. I made
mental trades in my mind until I managed to match the totals demanded by Galdran. Then I was going to
find Oria and tell it all to her so she could write it down." I shrugged.

Though I'd only learned to read and write the year before, it was I who kept track of our careful hoard of
supplies, and the taxes, and the plansтАФand now all my work was scattered over the stone floor of the
room.

We both stared until the plop-plop of raindrops coming through the broken window and landing on the
papers forced us into action.

Working together, we soon got all the papers picked up. Bran silently gave me his stack, and I pressed
them all tightly against me. "I still have the totals in my head," I assured him. "I'll find Oria and get her to
write it out, and we can see where we are. We'll be all right, Bran. We will." I wanted desperately to see