"Christopher Rowley - Bazil 06 - Dragons of Argonath" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rowley Christopher)

Cross Treys was regarded as a restful posting, a place for convalescence.
Nothing much happened in Blue Stone that required legion interference.
A minor incident with a troll owner now and then, or an old vendetta in
the western hills might flare up. Bandits occasionally attacked wagons on
the road in Ersoi on the coast, but mostly it was just a quiet routine of
work in the woodlots and helping parties of Imperial Engineers to build
and repair roads and bridges. Dragons actually looked forward to these
projects. They didn't last long, not with ten dragons helping, and wyverns
didn't mind a certain amount of heavy work. It even felt good to dig and
haul stone for a few days. But mainly they liked it because the Imperial
Engineers always had a huge budget for beer. On that score the dragons
were well pleased. Blue Stone brewers specialized in summer wheat beers
that were very popular with the dragons.
 Another pleasant aspect of building a new bridge was that the local
people would vie to feed the dragons. Pies, roasts, huge platters of ham,
mounds of hot bread and cheese, the cooks everywhere tried to outdo each
other in feeding the dragons. This could be an expensive process, though
not nearly as expensive as hiring gangs of laborers.

Throughout the Argonath lands, the roads were now paved and usable
year-round. Clean water flowed to every city and town. Sewage was dealt
with sensibly in all major towns. Bridges, walls, canals, ponds, docks,
wherever possible the Imperial Engineers were at work, assisted often by
dragon labor, which made heavy work go very swiftly indeed. Ten wyvern
dragons, equipped with gigantic shovels and steel beams to use as picks
and prods, could cut two hundred yards of canal, ten feet wide and eight
feet deep in a few days, depending on the nature of the ground.

When there wasn't any work, the dragons just lazed around the camp.
They exercised regularly, of course, and worked with their weapons. There
was a drill session at least once a week. Dragon Leader Cuzo insisted on
this. But there was always the plunge pool when they got hot. And in the
evenings there was legion dinner, plain but plentiful, and with it some
legion brew. It was a restful life at Cross Treys.

And it would have been for the 109th, but for the growing rivalry
between dragonboys Swane and Rakama.

Big, long-nosed Swane had been the bully boy in the unit for years. The
brown-haired fellow was well over six feet and solidly built all the way
down. He could whip any of them, except Relkin, who he had never fought.
The two had always fenced around, but had never come to serious blows.
Swane respected Relkin and was jealous of him at first, but over the years
his respect had grown and the jealousy had faded.

Now the hierarchy was challenged by the presence of Rakama, a
pug-nosed chunk of muscle from the Blue Hills town of Mud Lake.
Rakama was a scrapper and more, he had trained in fighting school. He
had a powerful upper body and a terrific straight right hand. His hand
speed and coordination were dangerous.