"Duncan, David - Seventh Sword 2 - Coming of Wisdom, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

The Coming of Wisdom
Book Two of the Seventh Sword
by Dave Duncan
Copyright (c)1988 by D. J. Duncan

_For_
_MICHAEL_
_my brother_
_of course!_
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The Fourth Oath

Fortunate is he who saves the life of a colleague, and greatly blessed are two who have saved each other's. To them only is permitted this oath and it shall be paramount, absolute, and irrevocable:
I am your brother,
My life is your life,
Your joy is my joy,
My honor is your honor,
Your anger is my anger,
My friends are your friends,
Your enemies are my enemies,
My secrets are your secrets,
Your oaths are my oaths,
My goods are your goods,
You are my brother.
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*BOOK ONE*

*HOW THE SWORDSMAN RAN AWAY*
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*1*
"Quili! Wake up! Priestess!"
Whoever was shouting was also banging on the outer door. Quili rolled over and buried her head under the blanket. Surely she had just come to bed?
The outer door squeaked. The banging came again, now on the planks of the inner door, nearer and much louder.
"Apprentice Quili! You must come!" More banging.
The trouble with summer was that there was never enough night for sleeping, yet the little room was still quite black. The roosters had not started yet ... No, there was one, far away ... She would have to waken. Someone must be sick or dying.
Then the inner door squealed open, and a man was waving a rush light and shouting. "Priestess! You must come -- there are swordsmen, Quili!"
_"Swordsmen?"_ Quili sat up.
Salimono was a roughhewn, lumbering man, a farmer of the Third. Normally imperturbably placid, he was capable on rare occasions of becoming as flustered as a child. Now one of his great hands was waving the sparking rush light all around, threatening to set fire to his own silver hair, or Quili's straw mattress, or the ancient shingles of the roof. It scrolled brilliance in the dark. It flickered on stone walls, and on his haggard face, and in Quili's eyes.
"Swordsmen ... coming ... Oh! Beg pardon, priestess!" He turned around quickly, just as Quili fell back and pulled the blanket up to her chin.
"Sal'o, you did say 'swordsmen'?"
"Yes, priestess. In a boat. By the jetty. Piliphanto saw them. You hurry, Quili..." He headed for the door.
"Wait!"
Quili wished she could take off her head, shake it, and put it back on again. She had walked away most of the night with Agol's baby, surely the worst case of colic in the history of the People.
Swordsmen? The rush light was filling the tiny room with fumes of goose grease. Piliphanto was not a total idiot. No thinker, but no idiot. He was a keen fisherman, which could explain why he had been down on the jetty before dawn. There would be more light down by the water, and a swordsman's silhouette would be distinctive. It was possible.
"What are you doing about them?"
Standing in the doorway with his back firmly turned, Salimono said, "Getting the women out, of course!"
"What! Why?"
"Ach! Swordsmen."
That was wrong. That was all wrong. Quili knew little about swordsmen, but she knew more about them than Sal'o did. Hiding the women would be the absolute worst thing to do.
"You mustn't! It'll be an insult! They'll be furious!"