"part2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Keith Brooke - Lord of Stone)

and said, "Our kitchen ... my apologies." He turned back to
the two soldiers as Bligh walked over to the window and
looked out at the shattered walls and heaps of rubble where
the hotel kitchen had once stood.

They went outside.

A small crowd stood on one side of Settlement Square, holding
assorted Cooperative and Syndicate pennants over their heads.
As Bligh and Madeleine stepped out, a double line of soldiers
emerged from a side street, kicking high in the southern
style which had looked so comical the first time Bligh
witnessed it. The soldiers marched past the crowd, their rear
brought up by a single boy carrying a Landworkers' Alliance
flag, its pole supported by a sling across his shoulders. In
a few minutes the procession had disappeared from sight and
the onlookers began to disperse.

Madeleine found Bligh's hand and led him away from the square
in search of food. After a short time they came across a knot
of people gathered outside a church. A wagon was pulled up in
the street and a number of men were aloft, sorting bags and
parcels thrown up from the crowd. A short distance away, a
horse backed up, kicking at the air as a man clung,
determinedly, to its harness. Bligh and Madeleine watched for
a while, then as the crowd thinned they approached a gowned
priest and asked him what was happening.

"We are collecting for the soldiers," he said, breathing
heavily after his exertions in loading the wagon. His face
shone with sweat and he rubbed at it with the carmine sleeve
of his gown. "There are coats, boots, trousers. There are
tins of milk, cheeses ... oat bread that will keep for weeks
and then have to be soaked in water to make it palatable.
There are books and razors and many other items, too. We
collect them for the Unification Party of the People and we
pray to the Lords for Their forbearance."

"They bet on both sides," said Madeleine, as they walked away
and the priest began the difficult task of harnessing the
horse to the front of his heavily laden wagon.

"Hmm?"

"The Church. In Figuaras and Mountsenys the priests will be
collecting for the Army and preaching against the Lordless
uprising here in the East. Before the LA took Dona-Jez our
priest tried to rally the people against the revolution. He
tried to strike the fear of the Lords into them. Now he works
in the fields and calls the people 'Friend' but they do not