"Lackey, Mercedes - Valdemar - Vows and Honor 01 - The Oathbound" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

times meant food—

But there was no food in sight, at least not that
the bird recognized as such. And as he came lower
still, the one with the beasts looked up at him

suddenly, and reached for something slung at her
saddlebow.

The bird had been the target of arrows often
enough to recognize a bow when he saw one. With a
squawk of dismay, he veered off, flapping his wings
with all his might, and tracing a twisty, convoluted
course out of range. He wanted to be the eater, not
the eaten!

Tarma sighed as the bird sped out of range, un-
strung her bow, and stowed it back in the saddle-
quiver. She hunched her shoulder a little beneath
her heavy wool coat to keep her sword from shift-
ing on her back, and went back to her task of scrap-
ing the snow away from the grass buried beneath it
with gloved hands. Somewhere off in the far dis-
tance she could hear a pair of ravens calling to each
other, but otherwise the only sounds were the sough
of wind in branches and the blowing of her horse
and Kethry's mule. The Shin'a'in place of eternal
punishment was purported to be cold; now she had
an idea why.

She tried to ignore the ice-edged wind that seemed
to cut right through the worn places in her nonde-
script brown clothing. This was no place for a
Shin'a'in of the Plains, this frozen northern forest.
She had no business being here. Her garments, more
than adequate to the milder winters in the south,
were just not up to the rigors of the cold season
here.

Her eyes stung, and not from the icy wind.
Home—Warrior Dark, she wanted to be home! Home,
away from these alien forests with their unfriendly
weather, away from outClansmen with no under-
standing and no manners . .. home. ...

Her little mare whickered at her, and strained
against her lead rope, her breath steaming and her
muzzle edged with frost. She was no fonder of this
chilled wilderness than Tarma was. Even the
Shin'a'in winter pastures never got this cold, and