"Nancy Springer - Isle 03 - The Sable Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Springer Nancy)

Emrist was sitting in the roadway, holding his head and looking pale as a wraith. "What are you?" he
whispered. "You fought like a King's man."

Trevyn laid down the bloody sword before he went near him, not wishing to alarm him. He kneeled and
probed his



master with careful fingers. A welt was rising on Emrist's head, but nothing else was wrong that Trevyn
could find. Yet Emrist reeled and went limp under his touch. Though he hated the thought of staying any
longer in these unfriendly parts, Trevyn could see nothing for it but to make camp. He slung Emrist over
his shoulders and carried him into the woods, looking for shelter.

If it had not been for fear, the night would have seemed luxurious to Trevyn. He found everything he
needed on the bodies of the slain robbers. In the shelter of a rocky scar he made a fire with their flint and
steel. He set rabbit snares with the lacings of their sandals. Later he warmed himself against the night chill
in a looted cloak while he carved his dinner with a looted knife. It was the first fresh meat he had eaten in
over two months. Bits of bread, too, had been in the robbers' pockets. Trevyn saved them for the
morrow.

Throughout the night he sat by the fire with naked sword in hand, starting at every shadow. Strange
chance, he mused, that he, a king's son, should have become a robber of robbers. At his side lay Emrist,
also wrapped in "borrowed" cloaks. From time to time the young man moaned and gazed half fearfully
until Trevyn soothed him with a glance and a touch of cooling water. Strangest of chance that bound him
to this slaveholding Tokarian! Not that he could ever desert a helpless man, butтАФwas a courteous word
so rare in this eastern land, a friendly glance so precious, that Emrist had sent such a flood of comfort to
his heart?

Emrist awoke fully in the morning, and though he sat up painfully, the dazed look was gone from his
eyes. Trevyn gave him the bread and the little wine that remained. He ate slowly, but finished it all. "Did
you not sleep at all?" he asked.

Trevyn cast a wry glance at the woods all around them.

"Ay, it is an evil place," Emrist agreed. "I would rather be far away from here." He hesitated. "Good
friend, it should be no more than a half-day's journeyтАФdo you think you could help me home?"

Trevyn nodded his willingness, then pointed inquiringly. Emrist laughed.

"Of course, you do not know the way! Or you would have



taken me yesterday, hah?" Trevyn grinned and nodded. "Well, it's not hard," Emrist continued. "We just
follow the road. It turns to a track, then to a trail, then at last to a little path through the forest, and it ends
at the house, in the clearing atop the hill. My sister will welcome us. She must be frightened by now,
though she is a strong-hearted woman. There are no neighbors to comfort her. Even the robbers do not
come near the hauntтАФ" Emrist stopped short. He had spoken with dreamy happiness about his sister and
his home, but now he believed that he had said too much. He stared at Trevyn in open terror.