"Norton, Andre - No night without stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Andre Norton)

bearing dots. Smoothing out a hand-sized portion of her cloak, she tossed the
cubes with a flick of her wrist, so that they tumbled onto the site she had
prepared, and lay one surface up. She bent over them eagerly, scanning the dots
that were uppermost, and then frowned. Sweeping them up she tossed again. The
result seemed to satisfy her no better, nor did a third try. Her frown was much
deeper as she tumbled them back into her bag. She sat for a time staring into
the fire, and Sander caught the faintest of mumbles, as if she now spoke words
of her own Power, intended for her ears alone.
At last she gave a sigh and curled up on her cloak as if she had performed some
necessary action but was not reassured by that. He thought that she slept. If
she was as alarmed about the non-return of the fishers as he was about the
missing Rhin, she gave no outward sign.
The koyot was not back when Sander stretched the stiffness from his limbs with
the coming of light. He was thirsty, and a heft on the leather water bag told
him that it was too near empty. Rhin's instinct was what Sander depended upon to
locate some stream or spring, and Rhin was not here. Of course, the koyot could
easily follow their trail as they traveled on, but Sander wanted him now. Once
more he whistled. His call was answered, not by the short yelp he hoped to hear,



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but rather with the screech of some bird within the wood.
Fanyi sat up. She pulled from one of her own bags a handful of dried, dark red
fruit, which she divided meticulously into two shares.
"Your furred one is not near," she said.
"And yours?" he demanded with unusual harshness.
"No nearer. I think they hunt in there." She pointed with her chin at the wood.
"As I said, they have a liking for trees."
"Can they find water?" He shook the bag a little to emphasize their need.
"If they wish." Fanyi's reply was calm enough to be irritating. "But there are
other ways. I know some of them. It would seem we must now carry our gear
ourselves." She regarded the bags Rhin had borne. "Well, that I have also done
before." She spread out her cloak and began wrapping in it the bags she had
brought, lashing them into a neat bundle.
Sander finished the dried fruit in two swift gulps. The taste was tart, and the
small portion came nowhere near satisfying his hunger. He hoped that somewhere
in the forest facing them he could get a shot at meat on the hoof. He needed the
strength of such a meal.
Now he made a backpack, using Rhin's pad for its outer casing. The smith tools
were the heaviest items, and silently he fretted over the non-appearance of the
koyot. Rhin was a formidable fighter, he was also fleet of foot. Foreboding
pricked at Sander. They had no knowledge of what might exist in this new
country. He had no idea either of how he could trail the koyot and find him, if
the animal had fallen into some peril.
The pack weighed heavily on his shoulders. However, he was determined to make no
complaint, for the way Fanyi marched confidently ahead into the shadow of the
trees was, in a measure, a challenge. Sander went forward with his bolt thrower