"Dave Duncan - Tales of King's Blades 2 - Lord of The Firelands" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

interesting. He was probably the only man in the
room who cared a snail's eyebrow about what had
happened in Fitain. Everyone else just wanted
to hear about the fighting and how it felt to keep on
fighting when you knew you ought to be dead after having
your thigh crushed and a sword run through you.
The sky was blue beyond the dirty panes.
Back in Wasp's beansprout days he had
watched Lord Bannerville bind Spender.
Dragon and Burl must have been there, attending their
ward, but he could not remember what they had looked
like.
No one had thought to open the windows and the room
held too many people; it was stuffy. Attentions were
wandering.
At the far side of the room, Herrick stifled
a yawn.
Suddenly Wasp's jaw took on a fearful
life of its own. He struggled desperately, but
the yawn escaped. That one Sir Spender
noticed.
Sir Spender exploded. "Smug young
bastards!" he snapped. He heaved himself to his
feet. "You don't give a spit about this, do you,
any of you?" His already pale face had turned
white as marble. "You don't think it matters!
Doesn't concern you, any of you, does it?" He
glared around the room, eyes flashing with fury,
left hand steadying his scabbard as if he were about
to draw. "You insufferably stuck-up unbearable
latrine cleaners, all of you!"
Twenty-four seniors stared up at him in
horror. Wasp wanted to die. How could he have
done that? Yawning! What a crass,
imbecilic, childish thing to do!
But Spender's rage was not just against him--it was
directed at all of them. "I know what you're
thinking!" He grew even louder. "You all think
that the King takes the best for the Guard and
it's only the failures he assigns as
private Blades. Don't you? Don't you?
Just nod!" he said, dropping his voice to a
menacing growl. "If that's what you think, you young
slobs, just nod once and I'll give you a
fencing lesson with real swords. I'm a
private Blade and proud of it. Burl and
Dragon were my brothers and they're dead! They
didn't rank second to anyone!"
Wasp stared appealingly at Prime and so did
everyone else. Say something! A week ago