"Peter David - Sir Apropos 02 - The Woad To Wuin" - читать интересную книгу автора (David Peter)

unruly. My nose was crooked from having been broken several times, and although my eyes were a
remarkably pleasing shade of gray, the rest of my hodgepodge of features invariably overwhelmed them.
Furthermore I was lame of right leg, and got about with the aid of a sizable walking staff that also served
as a formidable weapon. In short, I was easy to spot and difficult to disguise.

Sharee was less distinctive. She dressed customarily in black, with ebony hair cut short and curled
around her ears, and her rather prominent chin perpetually out thrust as if she were challenging the world
to take its best shot at her. There were times when it seemed to me that her prime reason for existence
was harassing me and taking great pleasure in the bizarre vagaries of my life. Still, in some ways she was
the truest friend I had ever encountered, if one definedfriend as "perpetual irritant."

Just in case Runcible's knights did happen to be following us, we retreated west and later north, to
take refuge in theTuckerForest. This was not done without a certain degree of trepidation on my part.
TheTuckerForestwas a nesting area for a particularly vicious group of cutthroat monstrosities called the
Harpers Bizarre, with whom I had considerable bad blood. I would far have preferred to take refuge in
the Elderwoods of my youth, but the only way to get there was either along roads too heavily traveled for
my comfort, or across the Screaming Gorge of Eternal Madness, about which the less said the better.
Besides, Sharee seemed rather confident that if difficulties arose, her weather-related magiks could
dispose of the Harpers with alacrity, and so theTuckerForestbecame our temporary haven while we
waited for the name Apropos to fade into the furthest recesses of royal memory.

Fortunately I had considerable proficiency in forestry, one of the few true talents I possessed other
than evasion, self-preservation, and rank cowardice. I had developed the forestry skills in my youth, and
they had not faded in time as I grew to young manhood. I was reaching the end of my teens when we
took up temporary refuge in theTuckerForest. We found a cave in which to reside, well hidden from
casual observation either from ground level (i.e., thieves) or from overhead (i.e., the Harpers Bizarre).
We figured we would spend a couple of days there and then work our way farther west in order to
distance ourselves more from Runcible's men. I spent time hunting, catching small game, while Sharee
preferred to alternate between meditating and acting as if she had something far better to do with her time
than remain with me.

Occasionally, though, we had mild fun together. For instance, I commented to her that I would be
interested in learning some magic. In response, she started teaching me card tricks. Not real magic at all,
and I was quite irritated with her at first. But in short order, I actually derived some genuine amusement
from it. I was a fairly quick learner, and also picked up some easy sleight-of-hand, including misdirection
and the ability to apparently pluck a card out of the air. Not much of a trick to the latter, really. Simply
keep your hand straight, hold the upper corners of the card securely on the back of your hand, between
your fingers, and then snap it quickly forward. The card seems to have come out of nowhere. As noted,
not genuine magic, but sometimes we measure the quality of life's passage by just how much of an
assortment of mindless pastimes we develop to entertain ourselves through it.

In terms of hunting, at first I stuck to small animals. But I tired quickly of a steady diet of rabbit and
squirrel. So I redesigned and reconfigured the traps for bigger bait, hoping to snag a small deer or
perhaps even a straying unicorn. Immortal or not, such creatures could still die from a quickly snapped
neck, and such were my traps intended for. Naturally I set them nowhere near the roads that occasional
travelers might use, lest an unfortunate accident occur.

Yet it happened anyway.

I was moving through the forest one day with my customary stealth. It may sound boastful or