"Jane Yolen - Pit Dragon 03 - A Sending of Dragons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Yolen Jane)

Cave, named after their friend who had fled with them and had most certainly died at the wardensтАЩ
hands. GoldenтАЩs Cave had caches of berries for flavoring and for drinks. Akki had strung dried flowers
on vines that made a rustly curtain between the main cave and the smaller sleeping quarters, which they
kept private from the dragons. Higher on the mountain, but not as high as the Upper Mead ows, was
LikkarnтАЩs Lookout. It was as rough and uncompromising a place as the man it was named after, JakkinтАЩs
old trainer and enemy Likkam. But Likkam had proved a surprising ally in the end, and so had the
lookout cave, serving them several times in the early days of their exile when theyтАЩd spotted bands of
searchers down in the valley. But the middle cave, which Akki called the New Nursery, was the one they
really considered their home.

What had first drawn them to it had been its size. It had a great hollow vaulted room with a succession of
smaller caves behind. There were wonderful ledges at different levels along the walls on which JakkinтАЩs
unfired clay bowls and canisters sat. Ungainly and thick the clay pots certainly were, but JakkinтАЩs skills
were improving with each try, and the bowls, if not pretty, were functional, holding stashes of
chikkberries, dried mushrooms like the cave apples Jakkin so disliked, and edible grasses. So far his
own favorite bit of work was a largebellied jar containing boil. It was the one piece he had successfully
fired and it was hard and did not leak.

The floor of the cave was covered with dried grasses that lent a sharp sweet odor to the air. There was a
mattress of the same grass, which they changed every few days. The bed lay in one of the small inner
chambers where, beneath a natural chimney, they could look up at night and see the stars.

тАЬThere!тАЭ Jakkin said, pointing to the shelf that held his latest, still damp work. тАЬThis clay was a lot easier
to work.тАЭ

There were five new pots, one large bowl, and two slightly lopsided drinking cups.

:тАЬWhat do you think?тАЭ

тАЬOh, Jakkin, theyтАЩre the best yet. When theyтАЩre dry we must try them in the fire. What do you think?тАЭ

тАЬI thinkтАжтАЭ And then he laughed, shaping a picture of an enormous cave apple in his mind. The
mushroom had an enormous bitesized chunk out of it.

Akki laughed. тАЬIf you are hungry enough to think about eating that,тАЭ she said, тАЬweтАЩd better start the
dinner right away!тАЭ

тАЬ We come. Have hunger, too.тАЭ The sendings from the three smallest dragons broke into JakkinтАЩs head.
Their signature colors were shades of pink and rose.

тАЬWe wait. We ride your shoulder. Our eyes are yours.тАЭ That came from the largest two of HeartтАЩs
BloodтАЩs hatchlings. They were already able to travel miles with neither hunger nor fatigue, and their
sendings had matured to a deeper red. Sssargon and Sssasha, the names they had given themselves with
the characteristic dragon hiss at the beginning, spent most of the daylight hours catching currents of air
that carried them over the jagged mountain peaks. They were, as they called themselves, JakkinтАЩs and
AkkiтАЩs eyes, a mobile warning signal. But they were not needed for scouting at night because there was
nothing Jakkin and Akki feared once the true dark set in.

тАЬCome home. Come home.тАЭ JakkinтАЩs sending was a green vine of thought.