"Springer, Nancy - Book Of The Isle 2 - Silver Sun" - читать интересную книгу автора (Springer Nancy)

old hunk of bread. To Alan the bread was a vision of
bliss, and he grasped at it with the impatience of a child.

"Eat slowly," Hal cautioned. His gray eyes were darker
now, but softer, as gentle as they had been hard before.

Alan bit into the precious bread. He scarcely noticed as
the blood-stiffened cloak was peeled away from his
wounded back. Hal carefully washed the sword stripes,
applied ointment from the jug, than laid on pads of cloth.
He bandaged these on with strips of cloth around Alan's
body and shoulders. Alan was surprised that he could not
eat much of the bread, but it did not matter. A blanket
was wrapped around him, and he slept.

It seemed only a few minutes later that he was awak-
ened by a gentle shaking. But it was after nightfall. A
small campfire was crackling nearby, and over it sat a
kettle from which issued a delicious aroma of meat.

"Can you sit up?" asked Hal. "Here, lean against this
tree." The blanket served as a pad for Alan's sore shoul-
ders. The fire warmed his bare legs. Hal filled a battered
metal dish with stew, and handed it to him, along with a
spoon and a cup of water.

Alan spoke with difficulty. "Hal, have you eaten?"

The other shook his head. "After you. There is only
the one bowl and spoon."

Alan ate eagerly. The venison, roots and berries
seemed to him food fit for a king's board. But he could
not eat more than a few mouthfuls.

"I have not yet thanked you for saving my life," he
said as he rested against the tree.

Hal lowered his gray eyes, flushing, genuinely ill at
ease. "Never mind that," he mumbled. There was no
hint about him now of the power that had cowed the cap-
tain and his armed troops. Alan had never believed in

The Forest 5

warlocks; it was his hunger-fogged brain, he thought,
that had imagined strange words and a stranger glance
half a day before. Still, the horses had run away in spite
of curbs and cuffs. . . . What sort of oddity was his new
companion, that he could sow such fear with a glance?