"Robin Hobb - Soldier Son 01 - Shaman's Crossing" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hobb Robin)

have seen how Parth rolled his eyes. My heart sank. It meant that
Parth had little intention of complying with my father’s orders, and
that I would later be held accountable for what I had not learned,
which had happened before. I resolved, however, that it would not
happen this time.
I followed him as we walked a short distance down the street.
“That’s a barracks, where soldiers live,” he told me. “And that’s a
canteen, tacked onto the end of it, where soldiers can get a beer and
a bit of relaxation when they aren’t on duty.”
The tour of the fort stopped there. The barracks and canteen were
constructed of wooden planks, painted green and white. It was a
long, low building with an open porch that ran the length of it. Off-
duty soldiers idled there, sewing, blacking their boots, or talking
and smoking or chewing as they sat on hard benches in the paltry
shade. Outside the canteen, another porch offered refuge for a class
of men I knew well. Too old to serve or otherwise incapacitated,
these men wore a rough mix of military uniform and civilian garb.
A lone woman in a faded orange dress slouched at one table, a limp
flower behind her ear. She looked very tired. Mustered-out soldiers
often approached my father in the hope of work and a place to live.
If he thought they had any use at all he usually hired them, much to
my lady mother’s dismay. But these men, I immediately knew, my
father would have turned away. Their clothes were unkempt, their
unshaven faces smudged with dirt. Half a dozen of them loitered on
the benches, drinking beer, chewing tobacco and spitting the
brownish stuff onto the earth floor. The stink of tobacco juice and
spilled beer hung in the air.

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...20Soldier%20Son%2001%20-%20Shaman's%20Crossing.html (14 of 761)23-2-2006 17:24:19
Shaman's Crossing - Robin Hobb - Soldier Son 01


As we passed by, Parth glanced longingly into the low windows,
and then delightedly hailed an old crony of his, one he evidently
hadn’t seen in years. I stood to one side, politely bored, as the two
men exchanged reports on their current lives through the window
opening, Parth’s friend leaning on the sill to talk to us as we stood
in the street. Vev had only recently arrived at the fort with his wife
and his two sons, having been mustered out after he injured his back
in a fall from his horse. Like many a soldier when his soldiering
days were done, he had no resources to fall back on. His wife did a
bit of sewing to keep a roof over their heads, but it was rocky going.
And what was Parth doing these days? Working for Colonel
Burvelle? I saw Vev’s face lighten with interest. He immediately
invited Parth to join him in a beer to celebrate their reunion. When I
started to follow him up the steps, Parth glared at me. “You wait
outside for me, Nevare. I won’t be long.”
“You’re not supposed to leave me alone in town, Corporal Parth,” I
reminded him. I’d heard my father reiterate that carefully on the
ride here; young as I was, I was still a bit surprised that Parth had