"Elizabeth Moon - Gird 01 - Surrender None" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

Rauf’s face. Sikan jumped at him; Gird rolled away, kicking wildly.
In moments that corner of the courtyard was a wild tangle of fighting
boys and squashed fruit. The steward bellowed, the lord’s guards
waded into the fight, using their hands, their short staves, the flats of

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Elizabeth Moon - Surrender None


their swords. And Gird found himself held immobile by two guards,
with Rauf lying limp on the stones, and the other boys huddled in a
frightened mass behind a line of armed men.
“Disgraceful,” said someone over his head. Gird looked up. The
lord’s steward, narrow-faced, blue-eyed. “Who started it?”
No one answered. Gird felt the hands tighten on his arms, and give a
shake. “Boy,” said a deeper voice, one of the men holding him.
“What do you know about this. Who started it?”
“He stole my plums.” Before he spoke, he didn’t realize he was going
to. In the heavy silence, with Rauf lying still before him, and the
courtyard a mess of trampled fruit, his voice sounded thin. The
steward looked at him, met his eyes.
“Your name, boy? Your father?”
“Gird, sir. Dorthan’s son.”
“Dorthan, eh? Your father’s not a brawling man; I’d have thought
better of his sons.”
“Sir, he stole my plums!”
“Your tribute… yes. What was it, this year?”
“A ruckbasket, sir. And they were fine plums, big dark ones, and
he—”
“Who?”
Gird nodded at Rauf. “Rauf, sir. Him and Sikan, his friend.”
“Anyone else see that?” The steward’s gaze drifted over the crowd of
boys. Most stared at their feet, but Teris, a year older than Gird and
son of his nearest neighbor, nodded.
“If you please, sir, it was Rauf started it. He said they were good
plums, and would look better in his basket. Then he took some, and
Gird said no, and he knocked Gird aside—”
“Rauf struck the first blow?”
“Aye, sir.”
“Anyone else?” Reluctant nods followed this. Gird saw a space open
around Sikan, who had edged to the rear of the group. Sikan flushed
and moved forward when the steward stared hard at him.
“It wasn’t so bad, sir,” he said, trying to smile around a bruised lip.

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Elizabeth Moon - Surrender None


“We was just teasing the lad, like, that was all.”
“Teasing, in your lord’s court?”