"Robin Hobb - Assassin 2 - Assassin' s Quest" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hobb Robin)

not go too far. He was waiting out there for me, but I knew he could not wait
long. Like me, he was hungry now.
Heart of the Pack went to the fire that made the room too hot.. There was a
pot by it, and he poked it away from the fire and took the lid off. Steam came
out, and with it smells. Grain and roots, and a tiny bit of meat smell, almost
boiled away. But I was so hungry I snuffed after it. I started to whine, but
Heart of the Pack made the eye-snarl again. So I went back to the hard chair. I
sat. I waited.
He took a very long time. He took all the leather from the table and put it
on a hook. Then he put the pot of grease away. Then he brought the hot pot to
the table. Then he set out two bowls and two cups. He put water in the cups. He
set out a knife and two spoons. From the cupboard he brought bread and a small
pot of jam. He put the stew in the bowl before me, but I knew I could not touch
it. I had to sit and not eat the food while he cut the bread and gave me a
piece. I could hold the bread, but I could not eat it until he sat down too,
with his plate and his stew and his bread.
"Pick up your spoon," he reminded me. Then he slowly sat down in his chair
right beside me. I was holding the spoon and the bread and waiting, waiting,
waiting. I didn't take, my eyes off him but I could not keep my mouth from
moving. It made him angry. I shut my mouth again. Finally he said, "We will eat
now."
But the waiting still had not stopped. One bite I was allowed to take. It
must be chewed and swallowed before I took more, or he would cuff me. I could
take only as much stew as would fit on the spoon. I picked up the cup and drank
from it. He smiled at me. "Good, Fitz. Good boy."
I smiled back, but then I took too large a bite of the bread and he frowned
at me. I tried to chew it slowly, but I was so hungry now, and the food was
here, and I did not understand why he would not just let me eat it now. It took
a long time to eat. He had made the stew too hot on purpose, so that I would
burn my mouth if I took too big a bite. I thought about that for a bit. Then I
said, "You made the food too hot on purpose. So I will be burned if I eat too
fast."
His smile came more slowly. He nodded at me.
I still finished eating before he did. I had to sit on the chair until he
had finished eating, too.
"Well, Fitz," he said at last. "Not too bad a day today. Hey, boy?"
I looked at him.
"Say something back to me," he told me.
"What?" I asked.
"Anything."
"Anything."
He frowned at me and I wanted to snarl, because I had done what he told me.
After a time, he got up and got a bottle. He poured something into his cup. He
held the bottle out to me. "Do you want some?"
I pulled back from it. Even the smell of it stung in my nostrils.
"Answer," he reminded me.
"No. No, it's bad water."
"No. It's bad brandy. Blackberry brandy, very cheap. I used to hate it, you
used to like it."
I snorted out the smell. "We have never liked it."