"David Eddings - The Dreamers 02 - The Treasured One" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

out in that meadow cutting sod for all they’re worth. The women of the tribe are
coming along behind them planting seeds. Red-Beard’s tribe will have nice sturdy
lodges and plenty to eat when winter arrives, and nobody was offended.’

‘Clever,’ I said admiringly. Then I frowned. ‘Has something happened to old Chief
White-Braid?’ I asked.

‘The destruction of Lattash was more than he could bear,’ Red-Beard explained
sadly. ‘He knew that the tribe was going to have to find a new place to live, but he
didn’t feel up to doing it himself because his sorrow - or maybe even grief- had
disabled him to the point that he couldn’t make decisions any more. He realized that,
so he laid the chore on my shoulders. I didn’t really want any part of it, but he didn’t
give me any choice.’

‘You’ll probably do quite well, Chief Red-Beard,’ I told him. ‘I’ve noticed that
men who don’t really want authority and responsibility make better leaders than men
who yearn for the position. Let’s go talk with our baby brother, Zelana. There are
things he needs to know, and I’m not sure how much time he has left.’



Longbow led my sister and me down to the beach where his canoe was resting on
the sand. There’s a quality about Zelana’s archer that I find more than a little
awesome. He’s a bleak-faced man whose war with the creatures of the Wasteland had
begun when he’d been hardly more than a child, and killing the servants of the Vlagh
had been his only purpose in life. He was a grim man with very few friends and an
almost inhuman level of self-control.

It occurred to me that we might all want to keep this man around. If all went well,
we’d turn back the servants of the Vlagh wherever and whenever they attempted to
invade our individual Domains, but in all probability, the Vlagh would still be there.
Longbow might very well be the answer to that problem. A single venom-tipped
arrow would send the creatures of the Wasteland down the road to extinction, and
that, of course, was our ultimate goal.

Longbow pulled his canoe down to the water and held it in place while Zelana and
I climbed into it, and then he pushed it clear and stepped into the stern all in one
motion.

‘I think our baby brother’s on board Narasan’s ship, Longbow,’ Zelana suggested.

‘Probably so,’ Longbow agreed. He paddled us out across the bay to the oversized
Trogite ship of Commander Narasan, where the young soldier called Keselo stood
waiting for us at the rail. ‘Is something wrong?’ he asked as Longbow smoothly
pulled his canoe in alongside the ship.

‘Not really,’ Zelana replied. ‘We just came by to tell our baby brother that it’s time
to go to work.’

‘Has Eleria been dreaming again?’