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

All at once Dera stopped speaking. Meer caught himself as he was about to speak, as well, and turned,
moving his huge head from side to side as if he were straining to hear some small sound. Jahdo realized
that he himself was - that they all were - turning to Niffa, staring at Niffa, even though she’d said not a
word. Her face had gone dead-pale, and in the broken torchlight her eyes seemed huge pools of
shadow, as empty as those of the bard himself. Demet grabbed her arm to steady her.

‘Let him go, Mam.’ Her voice was a hollow whisper. ‘He’ll be safer there than here.’

Involuntarily Jahdo glanced at Verrarc, standing just behind her, and saw the strangest smile on the
councilman’s face. It reminded him of a playmate caught cheating in a game. Dera considered for a long
moment, taking her daughter’s strange pronouncement seriously, as indeed she always did whenever
Niffa came out with one. For a moment she seemed about to speak; then she burst into tears and rushed
off, dodging her way through the remnant of crowd. Swearing under his breath, Kiel followed her.

‘Well, then, that’s settled.’ Rubbing his hands together, Verrarc stepped forward. ‘Lael, since your
son’s fulfilling an obligation for the entire town, the council will of course provide him with a pony and
such supplies as he’ll be needing for this journey. Meer, the chief speaker and I did think that we could
spare you some armed guards, as well, a squad of militia, say, and some pack horses.’

‘You can’t spare them, councilman,’ Meer said. That’s the point of my journey here, wasn’t it now?
Besides, the child and I will be safer on our own. I know a trick or two about smelling my way to safety
when I have to. If need be, the lad and I can always hide in wild places, but hiding a whole pack of
armed men in the forest is beyond me.’
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‘Hiding?’ Lael stepped forward. ‘From what? Now wait just a moment, good bard. I had no idea —’

‘Da!’ Niffa snapped. ‘It’s needful that you let him go.’

‘Come now, my good sir,’ Meer said. ‘The lore teaches that one of the fifty-two fixed things is this:
when women lay down the law, men must do as we’re told,’

Lael turned to him, utterly baffled by this statement, a gesture, of course, lost on the bard.

‘He does agree,’ Niffa broke in. ‘Jahdo, come home now. We’ve got to get your gear ready.’

Lael started to protest, then merely threw his hands in the air to reproach the gods and followed the two
children as they hurried across the by-then empty plaza. When Jahdo looked back, he saw Demet
running after as well. Standing where they’d left them, Verrarc and the Gel da "Iliac conferred, heads
together, while the rest of the town council hovered anxiously nearby.

The family spent a miserable evening round the central hearth, whete two candle lanterns stood, sending
long shadows flickering on the walls. No one wanted a fire on such a muggy night. For a long time Dera
and Lael paced back and forth, squabbling and cursing each other and the town council both while the
family merely listened. Niffa and Demet sat on a wooden bench; Kiel leaned in the doorway and
glowered; Jahdo scrunched into a corner with a ferret cradled in the crook of his arm for comfort. All at