"L. E. Modesitt - Recluce 07 - The magic Engineer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

nonsense and even study in Candar?" Kadara asks.
"No. You will learn enough so that you can live and survive in Candar or Nordla. Then you will
decide whether you can accept what Recluce offers. And you are one of the lucky ones- whose
parents can purchase the training. The others often just get a lecture and a boat ride."
Dorrin shivers. This is something he has not heard before. His eyes and Kadara's cross. Then
they look at their parents, but neither man will meet his offspring's question.
Lortren stands. "That's about it. You two can go, and I'll show these two youngsters to their
rooms."
While the words are polite enough, Dorrin understands that Lortren controls his future and
perhaps even his life.
"How ... where . .. ?" the smith stammers.
Lortren smiles, faintly. "If you want to see where your daughter will live, come along. It's
just a small plain single room."
Hegl steps after his daughter. Dorrin looks at his father and shakes his head. Although he will
never be the wizard his father is, he can sense enough to know that Lortren tells the truth.
"You'd rather I didn't?"
"I'd rather you didn't," Dorrin confirms. "Besides, you know what the rooms look like. Hegl
doesn't."
"Quiet, but sharp, isn't he, Oran?" observes Lortren.
"Too sharp for his own good, I fear."
"Good-bye," Dorrin says, shouldering his pack. Oran remains by the table as the four leave.
Lortren leads them down a corridor through another dark oak door and onto another covered
porch. "Over to that building." She points to a two-storied, slate-roofed structure perhaps two
hundred cubits uphill with narrow windows.
Dorrin counts the windows-ten on each level. If his estimate of the width of the roof line is
correct and there are rooms on both sides, the building will hold forty students. "Is that the


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only place where students live?"
"Not the only one, but most students live there. There's no absolute requirement for it, but
it's a long walk from either Land's End or Extina, and you will be kept rather busy." Lortren
hurries down the steps and along the stone-paved path toward the student housing. She walks almost
at a slow run.
Dorrin stretches his own stride out to catch up. "How long will our instruction take? Here, I
mean."
Lortren laughs, a short laugh that is half musical, half bark. "Probably about half a year, but
that depends on you."
"How often do you start groups-"
"Are there others-"
Both Kadara and Dorrin break off in mid-question, but keep moving to stay abreast of the black-
clad magistra.
"We allow new groups to start about every five or six eight-days. We usually have three or four
groups at different stages."
Dorrin is certainly not the only one questioning the order or meaning of Recluce-not if Lortren
is training nearly eighty young people a year.
The only sound is that of breathing, of booted feet upon stone, of the wind through the trees
in their orderly spacing throughout the grounds, and of the intermittent and distant shhhhsss of