"Jude Fisher - Fool's Gold 02 - Wild Magic" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fisher Jude)

preponderance of dark-haired folk, and for a slightly disdainful attitude
toward the easterners from the wealthier Eyrans. The mercenaries Sten
had bought back into his own service, for he appreciated good fighting
men and had no illusions about loyalty and patriotism; but the Istrians he
hanged and quartered on the very docks which they had planned to sack;
and then catapulted their body parts across the lower half of the city. "As
a message to the others," he had famously informed the single Istrian he
had spared? a gangling, black-haired boy from Forent, who had wisely not
revealed himself as the heir to the lord of that city. And now, as the tale
played itself to an end in her head, another thought struck Katla: she had
encountered that man's son at the Allfair. Rui Finco, Lord of Forent, had
presided over her trial, pronounced her guilt, sentenced her to burn. She
made the sign of Sur's anchor to ward off evil, and focused her eyes on the
town ahead.
At last, the faering grounded on the shingle below the quay. The crew
splashed up onto the beach, the ground feeling oddly stable and unmoving
beneath their feet, and dragged the boat up above the tideline. By the time
they had got their bearings, Katla and Halli found themselves alone, the
rest of the crew having dispersed like mist into the night of their home
town.
"We should find lodging," Halli said, sensible as ever.
But Katla's eyes were shining. "How can you think of sleep? There's a
whole city to be explored!"
She raced up the narrow stone steps onto the docks and stared around
with delight, even though there was little to see here beyond the usual
paraphernalia of such an area? tarpaulins stretched over sacks of grain,
casks and chests piled higgledy-piggledy, drying racks and nets, carts and
sleds and livestock pens; and behind these a shanty-town of marine
industry? ropemakers, sailmakers, netters, and caulkers. Beyond, another
Halbo beckoned: Katla could sense its seamy presence in the air? a
miasma of smoke and ale and sex.
"Come on!" she grabbed her brother by the arm and dragged him
around the corner into a place marked by a bedraggled twist of string
upon a pole with the name knotted into it in the traditional Eyran fashion:
Fish-eye Lane. The first tavern they passed offered the gorgeous sight of
two men puking in its doorway. Katla regarded them with interest but
Halli guided her quickly past. He had been to Halbo before. The Bosun's
Cur was not the sort of establishment to take your sister into, even one as
unladylike as Katla; but then again, it was hard to think of anywhere he
could.
Farther up the lane they passed a group of women in split-fronted
breeches and bizarrely stiffened corseting which spilled their pale breasts
up and over the whalebone like an offering to eager hands. Katla grinned
widely at their regalia.
"Come up the steps with me, little lad," the oldest of the group called in
the broad, coarse accent of the east mainland. She parted the fabric of her
pantaloons for a better sight of her wares. "I'll teach a couple of new tricks.
Have you tried 'the Rose of Elda? It's what they all want at the moment.
Guaranteed to make you shoot before your friend here has had time to
count his coin." She leered at Halli. "I might even do you for free, since