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

to business. All this staring was getting them nowhere and yielding no
information. There wasn't any need to hurry, of course, but Gar had a whole
planet to analyze. Well, if she wanted help, she could ask for it.
He bent to empty the bucket and scrub it with grass and sand. "Coming to get
your plate and mug," he said, and she retreated again, but more slowly, and not
as far. He brought back bowl, plate, and mug, stowed the gear in his pack, and
scooped dirt on the campfire.
"Thank you," she said, as though it were dragged out of her.
"A pleasure to help a fellow wanderer," Gar said, "and it's been another
pleasure to meet you. You're welcome to walk with me if you want. If you don't,
I wish you a safe journey." He turned to start hiking again.
Alea watched him walk away, uncertain of her feelings, then started to follow,
but fifty feet behind. After all, he seemed to be a genuinely gentle man.
If he was, though, he was the only one she'd ever metother than her father, of
course. She decided to reserve judgement, but her curiosity was aroused. She
told herself that she was only interested in seeing if he really did prove to be
gentle in the long run, then forced herself to admit that he was the only one
she had met who wasn't already taken, and he was taller than she was, too. If
there was any safety for her in this wilderness at all, he was it-until he
started expecting some sort of payment for his protection'. But he had shown no
interest in her as a woman, only as a person.
That didn't mean that he wouldn't, of course. She reminded herself that there
was no real safety for her at all, anywhere. Still, something within told her
that she could trust this man. She wondered why.
As she followed Gar down the road, Alea gathered berries and roots whenever she
found them, so that she would have at least some food to offer in return for
his. After perhaps half a mile, Gar glanced back and saw how haggard she was,
how unsteady her gait. He halted, and she stumbled on for a few steps before she
realized he had stopped. She yanked herself to stillness, suddenly completely
awake and ready to run again.
"You've been traveling at night, haven't you?" Gar asked. "I-I have, yes."
"And you're worn to the bone." Gar turned off the road and used his staff to
thrash a way through the underbrush. "Come, sit down while I pitch camp."
Alea blinked, stupefied that a man would change his plans because of her. Then
she managed to remember some realities and said, "The brush-they'll see where
it's flattened. . . ."
"They who?" Gar turned back. "That rabble who were bothering you? I'll be very
surprised if they stop running before nightfall."
"If not them, there will be others!"
"Is it that bad, then?" Gar studied her, frowning. "Yes, I suppose it must be.
If the giants have patrols in this no-one'sland, why shouldn't the.'.. what did
you call your people?"
"Not mine any more!" It came out much more harshly than Alea had intended, but
she wasn't about to back away from it.
Gar lifted his eyebrows in surprise, then nodded slowlyit would be very bad for
him to undermine that realization. It must have been hard enough for her to
admit, after all. "What shall I call them, then?"
"Midgarders," she said though stiff lips.
"Midgarders it is. There's that great a chance that another of their patrols
will come by?"