"Sheri S. Tepper - The True Game 1 - King's Blood Four" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

which the Demesnes were shown and the delicacy with which the cartouches were drawn-these being the
symbols mapmakers use to show which Gamesmen may dwell in a given place. I remember boarding the
Lakely Lass, a fat-bellied little ship which was to take us from the mouth of the River Reave along the
north and western shores of the Gathered Waters until we came at last to Vestertown and the highroad
leading south. There was a Seer standing at the rail as we came aboard, his gauze-covered face turned
toward me so that I could see the glitter of his eyes beneath the painted pattern of moth wings. Then I
remember huddling with Chance and Yarrel over a chart spread on the tough table, shadows scurrying
across it from the hanging lantern each time the ship rolled, Chance pointing and peering and

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 KING'S BLOOD FOUR - Sheri S. Tepper

mumblingтАж
"Over there, east, is the Great Dragon Demesne. See the cartouche, dragon head, staff-that's for a
warlock, a slather of spears showing he's got Armigers. Well, we'll miss that by a good bit. "
"How will we know the highroad is safe?" asked Yarrel in his usual practical tone..
"We'll go mousey and shy, my boys, mousey and shy. Quiet, like so many owl shadows under the trees,
making, no hijus cries or bringing on us the attentions of the powerful. Well, hope has it there are many
alive in the world of the Game who have never seen the edge of it played. "
I said, "I don't understand that. " They both stared at me in astonishment.
"Well, well, with us again are you? We'd about given you up, we had, and resolved to carry your
senseless carcass the whole way to its new House without your tenancy.. You don't understand it? Why,
boy, it's 'most the first lesson you learned. "
"I can't remember, " I mumbled. It was true. I couldn't.
"Why, " he said, "when you were no more than four or five, we used to play our little two-space games in
the kitchen before the fire, you and me. You with your little-bit queen and king on each side, the white
and the black, and your wee armigers and priests and the tiny sentinels at each end, standing high on their
parapets, and me the same. We set out on the board in such array, like the greatest army of ever was in a
small boy's head. You remember that?"
I nodded that I did, wondering how it connected.
"Well, then. We'd play a bit, you and me, move by move, and maybe I'd win, or maybe by some strange
cleverness, " he winked and nodded at Yarrel, "some most exceptional cleverness, you'd win. And there
on the board would be the lonely pawn, perhaps, or the sentinel on his castle walk, never moved once
since the game began. True?" Again, I nodded, beginning to understand.
"So. That piece was not touched by the edge of the game. It stood there and wasn't bothered by the
armigers jumping here and there or churchmen rushing up and down.. It's the same in the True Game, lad.
Of course, in House they don't talk much about the times that Gamesmen don't play, but truth to tell much
of life is spent just standing about or traveling here and there, like the little pawn at the side of the board.
"
He was right. We didn't spend any time in House learning a thing about hot playing.. All our time was
spent in learning to play, learning what moves could be made by which Gamesmen, what powers each
had, what conditions influenced the move, how to determine where the edge of a Demesne would lie.
"But even if they're hot involved in the play, " I protested, "surely they feel the powerтАж"
"Tis said not, " he said. "No more than in the lands of the Immutables who stand outside the Game
altogether. "
"Nothing is outside the Game, " I protested once more, with rather less certainty..
"Nothing but the Immutables, Lad, and they most unquestionably are."
"I thought them mythical. Like Ghost Pieces."
Even saying it, I made the diagonal slash of the hand which warded evil. Chance cocked his head, his
cheeks bulging in two little, hard lumps as he considered this, eyes squeezed almost shut with thought