"Lawrence Watt-Evans - Ethshar 8 - Ithanalin's Restoration" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watt-Evans Lawrence)

She knew Ithanalin was capable of it; the little creature that Lady Nuvielle had just bought was not the
only such she'd seen pass through the shop, so she knew that Ithanalin could make a very nice little
homunculus indeed, if he chose to. Animations were his specialty. He claimed to know more animating
spells than any other wizard in the city, and Kilisha believed himтАФthough as yet he had not taught her any
of them; she had been working her way up through more mundane magic.
He knew all the spells, yet there wasn't a sylph or homunculus or even as much as an animated
serving dish in the entire house. He had just created a familiar for a noblewoman, but had none himself.
Everything he had ever animated had been given away or sold. lie claimed that he didn't want the place
cluttered up with creatures that might interfere with his work, but Kilisha thought he just couldn't be
bothered.
Maybe someday, Kilisha thought as she turned away from the door, she could make a homunculus
for Yara on her own, if Ithanalin never did get around to it; it would be an expression of gratitude for the
treatment she'd had.
Ithanalin was a fine masterтАФpolite, informative, an excellent teacher, never beating her or working
her too hard, rarely even yelling at her when she messed something up. A girl could hardly ask for better,
really.
But Ithanalin could be absentminded and careless, and often left Kilisha to fend for herself in the
workshop for extended periods of time, or let her improvise complicated jury-rigged solutions to magical
problems that Ithanalin himself could have solved with a single simple little incantation. He kept telling her
to plan, to think things out for herselfтАФbut when she tried, it never seemed to work out, and often
because there was some little detail that Ithanalin had failed to provide.
Yara, thoughтАФYara was always considerate. It was Yara who made sure that Kilisha had clean
bedding, good food, safe water, and all the other basic necessities of life.
Of course, she did the same for her husband, and the three children, and herself. It was she who kept
the entire household running smoothly at all times. She was more than just a housekeeper, thoughтАФshe
loved her husband and her children and showed it, she provided the household with firm common sense
when it was called for, and she was even sometimes a friend when Kilisha needed one. Ithanalin was fine,
but he was her master, and sometimes she needed someone to talk to who wasn't her master. The three
childrenтАФTelleth, Lirrin, and PirraтАФwere sweet enough, but too young to understand the concerns of a
girl of seventeen. Telleth, the oldest, was only ten. Kilisha couldn't often talk to her parents or her brother
OpirтАФthey still lived in Eastgate, a mile away, and she was rarely free to visit there.
Much of the time there was only YaraтАФbut she was usually enough.
Kilisha knew she would have to animate a few things herself in order to learn the relevant spells;
perhaps, as part of her training, if Ithanalin didn't insist her creations be sold, she could provide Yara with
the magical servants Ithanalin had never bothered to create.
But she had less than a year of her apprenticeship remaining, and had not yet been taught a single one
of the spells that were Ithanalin's specialty and primary source of incomeтАФa fact that distressed her.
"Master," Kilisha said, "pleaseтАФcould I please learn an animation spell next?"
Ithanalin looked up at her, startled by the intensity in her voice.
"All right," he said. "We'll start on the seventeenth, the day after tomorrowтАФI have another important
customer coming tomorrow, and it will take me most of the day to get his spell ready, so we can't do it
then. But Kilisha, it may still be more than you can handle, even yetтАФanimation spells are tricky." He
thought for a moment, then added, "We'll start with the simplest I know. It's called the Spell of the
Obedient ObjectтАФyou've seen me use it. It's not the simplest there is, by any means, just the simplest I
know. We'll need the blood of a gray cat, and one of these gold coinsтАФI'll have to look the rest up. Day
after tomorrow, right after breakfast, then. You'll have to find a gray cat tomorrowтАФI don't have any
more cat's blood in stock. Besides, it'll keep you out of the way while I'm working."
Kilisha grinned. "Thank you, Master!" she said. She almost bounced with joy.
"That's tomorrow," Yara said, bringing her back to earth. "Right now, I'd like you to watch Pirra
while I get our dinner."