"Jude Fisher - Fool's Gold 01 - Sorcery Rising" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fisher Jude)

were out of sight of the family estate and had cheerfully left all the work to Saro, spending
his time instead peering at charts and maps of the river's course, and delivering orders to
the crew. Cognizant of Tanto's famous temper, the men deferred to him silently, though
Saro caught them exchanging amused glances, for everyone knew a child could steer a
barge up the Golden River.
As soon as they scented the horse nuts, the colts were crowding around Saro, pushing
at him with their velvety muzzles, until he had to drop the treats down inside his tunic
and fend them off. Night's Harbinger, however, had hung back from the rest and regarded
him warily. Slowly, Saro moved between the other horses till he was within arm's reach of
the bay. He held out his hand to him, empty, palm up. The bay rolled his eyes. When he
stretched out to rub Night's Harbinger on the cheek, he threw up his head, but did not
back away. Carefully, Saro reached into his shirt and drew out a handful of the horse nuts.
When he scented them, the bay became strangely compliant. A few seconds later, Saro
felt questing lips graze his hand, and then the horse nuts were gone, as if by magic, and
the next thing he knew, the bay was pressing his head against his chest, nosing deep into
his tunic, until he had to push him away. As he did so, his shirt pulled loose from his belt,
and horse nuts scattered everywhere.
They made a sound like a miniature rockfall.
Tanto's head whipped around, and took in with a face like thunder the sight of six of
the Vingo family's finest bloodstock yearlings scoffing worshipfully at his little brother's
feet.
***
ARAN Aranson's daughter ran until a sharp stitch under her ribs slowed her down.
Rage had carried her a mile or more from the family booths, to the edge of the fairground
and beyond. No one had taken much notice of a girl running urgently through their midst,
since there were so many other people scurrying in all directions on errands and
assignments. Like the Aransons, they were setting up their stands, raising tents and
pavilions, building temporary stockades for the livestock, tethering horses and dogs.
From the top of a rocky knoll, Katla looked back at the activity of the fair and
pummeled her abdomen with a hard knuckle, trying to shift the stabbing pain. Stupid!
She'd been so angry she'd forgotten to breathe properly. At home she ran for miles,
tireless and steady, her long legs loping like a hound's across moorland and meadow, up
hill and down dale. She never got stitches, not like this. Damn her father for his bullying
ways! She was a grown woman now, and surely due some respect; how dared he
manhandle her as if she were a wayward ewe at shearing time! And damn Fent and Erno,
too, for standing by like the useless wretches they were, not even bothering to lift a hand
to stop him. It didn't surprise her that Fent wouldn't stand up to their father, for Aran's
rages were elemental in their force, but she was disappointed in Erno, who might at least
have remonstrated with him. She'd thought, from his shyness around her, that he might
care a little for her, but clearly he was as cowardly and ineffectual as the rest of them. She
ran a distracted hand over her head, feeling for the first time its strange new
configuration, the remains of her hair uneven and spiky. Her head felt oddly light. It
was—she noted with some surprise—quite a pleasant sensation.
Well, at least washing it wouldn't be the tedious chore it usually was, with the long tail
hanging plastered like a wet cat down her back for hours on end. As short as it was now, it
would dry in minutes. She laughed as another thought struck her: for clearly her father
had no intention of parading her around before King Ravn, as a marriage prospect! When
Breta, Jenna, and Tian had heard she'd be coming to the Allfair, it had been all they'd talk
about—King Ravn Asharson: so handsome, so dashing, and by all accounts as wild as a
stallion in heat for a mate—and they'd giggled and blushed and gone on at tedious length