"Katherine Kerr - Deverry 07 - A Time Of War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kerr Katherine)

murmuring clot of townsfolk, until at last she fetched up next to Dcnict, standing guard near the fire itself.
So that’s it! Jahdo thought. She just wanted to find him, not Mam and Da at all.

Brass horns blared at the gates to the plaza. The crowd shrank back into itself, opening a narrow
passage through for the councilmen, with Verrarc in the lead and Admi, the Chief Speaker, bringing up
the rear. In the middle strode the Gel da’Thae, surrounded by councilmen, all murmuring to him at once,
whether or not he could hear over the crowd and the horns. As they reached the steps, a squad of
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militiamen escorted them to the big stone rostrum near the fire. After some confused milling round, the
clot opened again to let Admi climb the rostrum. A tall man with narrow shoulders but a big belly, he was
going bald rather badly, so that he seemed made from perched spheres. In the firelight his head gleamed
with sweat, and his tiny eyes peered out at the crowd through slits in heavy flesh. Yet when he spoke his
dark voice rang like gold.

‘Fellow citizens! We do have among us a guest, the honoured bard Meer of the Gel da’Thae.’

Dutifully everyone clapped their hands, a patter of sound, dying fast.

‘He does come on grave purpose and with serious intent. Trouble brews in the far west. The wild tribes
of the northern Horsekin are on the move.’

It seemed that everyone in the plaza caught their breath hard. Even over the crackle of the bonfire their
dismay hammered on the surrounding walls. Admi wiped his forehead with both hands, unconsciously
pushing back hair he no longer had.

‘May the gods allow that this trouble stay among them!’ Admi went on. ‘Yet who knows what the gods
intend? The western Horsekin, our allies for all these long years, are fortifying their cities. From what
Meer does tell me, it behooves us to look to our own. We go on full guard qnd military alert.’

Murmurs, nods - the crowd moved within itself, then fell silent. Jahdo inched closer along the wall. He
could just see Meer, turning his head slowly back and forth, as if listening to the temper of the gathering.

‘Since Meer did travel long and hard to reach us, he will claim a reward,’ Admi continued. ‘He would
journey farther on, where none of our merchants do go, and he does need a servant and guide. Sightless
as he is, he requires a lad to wait upon him in his roamings, now that he can no longer travel with a
caravan.’

Too late Jahdo remembered his sister’s premonitions. He clung to the wall, paralysed like a rat cornered
by a ferret, as Councilman Verrarc walked to the edge of the steps and looked his way. The traitor fire
flared up and sent long lines of light to bind him to Verrarc’s cold blue stare. In the crowd several men
called out a question.

‘He’s heading east.’ In the stress of the moment Admi dropped his rhetoric. ‘He says he does have
business at the border. The one we share with the Slavers.’

Jahdo turned so weak and cold that he nearly fell. He grabbed the rough stones to steady himself and