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

Your loving daughter,

Shennar



Dear Mother,

I'm sorry I haven't written sooner, but I've been pretty busy. The work isn't all that hard,
we don't get much time off.

Well, I could have written sooner, butтАж

Well, anyway, I'm writing now.

Everything's fine here. I got my uniform completed-the armorer had a lot of trouble with
breastplate, but he got it right eventually. Or almost right; it's still a bit snug.

I've been here for two months now, and mostly it's been fine. I don't mind standing guard
the gate, or walking the top of the wall, or patrolling the market, and so far I haven't had to
arrest anyone or break up any fights. Not any real fights, anyway-nothing where picking
someone up and throwing him away didn't solve the problem.

And my time off duty has been all right; most of the men treat me well, though they're a l
rougher than I'm used to. I don't mind that; I can be rough right back without worrying about
hurting anyone.

But I'm not sure I'm really fitting in. I mean, everyone's nice to me, and they all say they
having me here, but I don't really feel like I'm part of the company yet, if you know what I
mean. I'm still the new kid.
 And it doesn't help any that once every sixnight, all the men in my barracks hall go down
Whore Street, and the whole place is empty, and I can't go along.

The first time they did that I just sat nere and wrote to you, and then tidied up the place,
kept busy like that, but the second time I was determined to do something.

So I tried going downstairs to one of the other barracks halls-I'm on the fourth floor of th
North Barracks-but I didn't know anybody there, and they were all busy with their regular
off-duty stuff. The only way I could see to get in on anything would be to join the game of
three-bone going on in the corner, and I'm not very good at dice, so I didn't.

Then I tried going into the city, but I went in uniform, and the minute I walked into a tave
everyone shut up and stared at me. That wasn't very comfortable.

I thought maybe they'd get over it, so I bought an ale and sat down at an empty table and
waited for someone to come over and join me, but no one did.

It wasn't much fun.