"05.The King's Buccaneer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Feist Raymond E)

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Harry shrugged. "I don't know. Crydee sounds like a pretty sleepy place. I wonder what the girls are like." He grinned at the last and Nicholas grimaced in return. Nicholas was as shy of girls as Harry was shameless. Still, he enjoyed being around Harry when he flirted with die younger girls in the court and the servants' daughters, because he thought he might learn something—as long as the Squire wasn't bullying them, as he had the day before. At times Harry could be charming, but at other rimes he got too rough for Nicholas's taste.

Nicholas said, "You may miss getting put tn your place by the local girls, but I feel like I'm getting out of a cage."

Harry's usual bantering manner vanished. "It's not that bad?"

Turning away from the practice, Nicholas walked back toward the palace, Harry felling in at his side. "I have always been the youngest, the weakest, the ... cripple."

Harry's eyebrows went up. "Some cripple. I've got more bruises and cuts from sword practice widi you than everyone else combined, and I don't think I've touched you more than twice in a year."

Nicholas's crooked smile made him look like his father as he said, "You've scored a point or two."

Harry shrugged. "See. I'm not bad, but you're exceptional. How could you be considered a cripple?"

"Do you have the Festival of Presentation in Ludland?"

Harry said, "No, it's only for the royal family, right?"

Nicholas shook his head. "No. It used to be diat every noble child was presented to the people thirty days after birth, so that all could see the child was born without flaw.

"It fell out of practice in the Eastern Realm a long time ago, but it was practiced widely in the West. My brothers were presented, as was my sister—all the children of the royal family, until me."

Harry nodded. "All right, so your father didn't wish to show you off to the people. What about it?"

Nicholas shrugged. "It's not what you are, sometimes; it's how people treat you. I've always been treated as if there was something wrong with me. It makes it hard."

"And you think things will be different in Crydee?" said Harry as they left the precinct of the stadium and reached the gate to the palace.

34 Raymond E. Feist

Two guards saluted the Prince as he passed, and Nicholas said, "I don't know my uncle Martin well, but I like him. I think I may have a different life in Crydee."

Harry sighed as they entered the palace. "I hope it's not too different," he observed as a particularly pretty maid hurried past. He watched her until she vanished through a side door. "There are so many possibilities here, Nicky."

Nicholas shook his head in resignation.

THE ROWERS PULLED and the longboat backed away, as heavy lines ran out to the stern of the ship. Upon the docks Arutha, Anita, and a .host of court functionaries stood, bidding Prince Nicholas good-bye. Anita had a glimmer in her eyes, yet she held back her tears. Nicholas was her baby, but she had seen three other children leave home before, and that kept her in balance. Still, she kept a tight hold on her husband's arm. Something in his manner made her uneasy.

Nicholas and Harry stood near the bow, waving to those upon the docks. Amos stood behind them, his eyes fixed upon his beloved Alicia. Nicholas looked from his grandmother to Amos and said, "Well, should I begin to call you 'Grandfather'?"

Amos gave Nicholas a baleful look. "You do and you'll swim to Crydee. And when we clear the harbor, you'll call me 'Captain.' As I told your father over twenty years ago, Prince or not, upon a ship none is master save the captain. Here I'm high priest and king, and don't you forget it."

Nicholas grinned at Harry, not quite ready to believe that Amos could turn into some sort of raging tyrant once they were at sea.

The harbor crew continued to tow the large ship clear of the royal quay, then cast off. Amos shot a glance at the harbor pilot and shouted, "Take the wheel, master pilot!" To the crew he shouted, "Set all topsails! Make ready mainsails and topgallants!"

When the first three sails were deployed, the ship seemed to come to life. Nicholas and Harry felt the movement beneath their feet. The ship heeled slighdy to the right as the pilot brought it about. Amos left the boys to their own devices and made his way to the stern.