"Lawrence Watt - Evans - The Guardswoman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watt-Evans Lawrence)

THE GUARDSWOMAN
Lawrence Watt-Evans

Dear Mother,

Well, I made it. I'm a soldier in the City Guard of Ethshar of the Sands, in the service of
overlord, Ederd IV.

It wasn't easy!

Getting here wasn't really any trouble. I know you were worried about bandits andтАж w
and other problems on the highway, but I didn't see any. The people I did see didn't bother m
at all, unless you count a rude remark one caravan driver made about my size.

He apologized nicely after I stuffed him headfirst into a barrel of salted fish.

After that everything went just fine, right up until I reached the city gates. I asked one of
guards about joining up, and he made a rude remark, but I couldn't stuff him into a fish
barrel-for one thing, he had a sword, and I didn't, and he had friends around, and I didn't, an
there weren't any barrels right nearby anyway. So I just smiled sweetly and repeated my
question, and he sent me to a lieutenant in the north middle towerтАж

I should explain, I guess. Grandgate is very complicated-it's actually three gates, one aft
another, with towers on both sides of each gate, so there are six gate-towers, three on the no
and three on the south. And each of those towers is connected by a wall to a really big towe
and then the city wall itself starts on the other side of each of the big towers, which are the
North Barracks and the South Barracks. Everything right along the highway, out to the width
the outer gate, which is the widest one, is part of Grandgate Market, and everyone just walk
right through if they want to and if the guards don't decide they shouldn't. Everything betwee
the inner towers and the barracks towers, though, is sort of private territory for us guards-th
where we train, and march, and so on.

Anyway, the gateman sent me to a lieutenant in the north middle tower, and he sent me to
Captain Dabran in the North Barracks, and he sent me back to another lieutenant, Lieutenan
Gerath, in the north outer tower, to see whether I could qualify.

I had to do all kinds of things to show I was strong and fast enough-most women aren't, a
all, so I guess it was fair. I had a foot race with a man named Lador, and then after I beat hi
had to catch him and throw him over a fence rail, and then I had to pick up this fellow name
Talden who's just about the fattest man you ever saw, Mother, I mean he's even fatter than P
the Smith, and throw him over the fence rail. I tried to find nice soft mud for them to land in
but I'm not sure if they appreciated it. The lieutenant did, though.

And then I had to climb a rope to the top of the tower, and throw a spear, and on and on.
 The worst part was the swordsmanship test. Mother, no one in the village knows how to
a sword properly, not the way these people do! Lieutenant Gerath says I'll need to really w
on using a sword. That prompted some rude remarks from the other soldiers about women
knowing what to do with swords, only they didn't mean sword swords, of course, but they a
shut up when I glared at them and then looked meaningfully at the fence rail and the mud.