"Cook, Glen - Black Company 09 - Glittering Stone 03 - Water Sleeps" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cook Glen)

hands did not stray toward a dangling purse or some treasure in a
vendor's stall. People did not look for what they did not expect to
see.



The boy's hands stayed behind his back. While they were there, he
was not considered a threat. He could not steal. No one noticed
the small, discolored blobs he left on any wall he leaned against.



Gunni children stared. The boy looked so strange in his black
pajama clothing. Gunni raise their children polite. Gunni are
peaceable folk, in the main. Shadar children, though, are wrought
of sterner stuff. They are more bold. Their religion has a warrior
philosophy at its root. Some Shadar youths set out to harass the
thief.



Of course he was a thief! He was Nyueng Bao. Everyone knew all
Nyueng Bao were thieves.



Older Shadar called the youngsters off. The thief would be dealt
with by those whose responsibility that was.



The Shadar religion has its streak of bureaucratic rectitude, too.



Even such a small commotion attracted official attention. Three tall,
grey-clad, bearded Shadar peacekeepers wearing white turbans
advanced through the press. They looked around constantly,
intently, oblivious to the fact that they traveled in an island of open
space. The streets of Taglios are packed, day and night, yet the
masses always find room to shrink away from the Greys. The
Greys are all men with hard eyes, seemingly chosen for their lack
of patience and compassion.



Tobo drifted away, sliding through the mob like a black snake
through swamp reeds. When the Greys inquired about the
commotion, no one could describe him as anything but what
prejudice led them to presume. A Nyueng Bao thief. And there was