"Christopher Stasheff - Rogue Wizard 07 - A Wizard In Midgard" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

think they were men. "It's just that you gave me a bad scare."
"I know," Jorak said, surly but looking at the ground.
"You can come down," Rokir told her. "We'll be good."
"I will, lads, when my heart slows down."Alea knew that she would have to take
the chance-you have to keep promises made to children, or they lose all faith in
other people. The thought gave her a glow of strength. She was an adult, after
all, and if they'd lived in the same village and she'd been their neighbor,
these boys might have been put in her care now and again, only a year or two
ago. They were children still, no matter their size. Boys that age still looked
to their mothers for reassurance, though they didn't like to admit it, and
therefore to most older women, too-at least, if they'd had good mothers, and she
guessed these two had. It must have been a cruel wrench indeed to have their own
parents turn them out of the house-though she suspected the village had turned
them out and shouted down the mothers' weeping. "Are you both from the same
village, lads?"
"Huh?"Jorak asked, surprized by the change of topic. Rokir, quicker to catch up,
said, "No. We never met until a week ago."
"Odd how strangers can become friends so quickly, isn't it?" Alea asked, and
added mentally, Especially when they're lost and lonely, feeling their lives are
ended. "I fled my village only two days ago."
"Fled?" The boys stared, astounded that anyone could actually want to leave
home.
"Ran away, yes." Alea's tone hardened again. "My parents died, and no boy had
come courting because I was too tall. The baron's man told the Council to take
my parents' house and lands and goods and give them to someone else, and give
them me into the bargain."
A sick look crept over the boys' faces. They'd seen such things happen before
and joined in the vindictive cries that the victim deserved it, for being
suspiciously like a giant or a dwarf. It didn't look so right and just now,
though.
Rokir tried for bravado. "At least they didn't cast you out for being a giant!"
"I'd rather they had," Alea said, her tone grim. "Do you have any idea what
people do to slaves? Or try to-especially women."
The boys winced and looked at the ground, sullen again. They had heard, well
enough. Jorak muttered, "There are good masters."
"There are," Alea agreed. "Mine weren't among them. The baron's man gave me to a
family that had always hated my parents."
Rokir shuddered at that, and Jorak grudgingly admitted, "No wonder you ran."
"No wonder," Alea echoed grimly.
"You can come down, miss," Rokir told her. "We wouldn't hurt someone who's been
through as bad as we have."
"At least you realize it would have been hurting." Alea frowned at a sudden
doubt. "You do realize that, don't you?"
"I've heard screams from houses where they kept slaves," Rokir admitted. "I
should have guessed."
"We didn't know you'd been a slave." Jorak's eyes were still downcast. "Thought
you were one of them wild women they talk about."
"Wild or not, it would have hurt just the same." Alea still eyed them warily.
"Do you promise?"
"Cross my heart." Jorak actually drew an X over the left side of his chest.