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

Swane was the taller and twenty pounds heavier, but from the
beginning Rakama thought he could take him on.

Swane was never one to ignore a challenge like that, and so the two had
had several run-ins. Swane had prevailed so far, but none of these fights
had lasted more than a minute or two before being broken up by others.
Even though he'd been pushed around in these short exchanges, Rakama
had hit Swane plenty and hurt him. They both knew that, which had
changed the equation slightly. Now Rakama was even more eager to fight
Swane, convinced that if a fight ran on past the first furious two minutes,
he would hammer the bigger youth. Swane fought well, however. But
Rakama had a natural hand speed that made his stinging right hand too
much for anyone but a trained boxer. Indeed, he had been chosen to
represent the Eighth Regiment in the summer games at Dalhousie in the
light-heavyweight division.

If Rakama could get through Swane's first rush, then he felt sure he'd
start getting in punches that would take the steam out of Swane very
quickly. Swane had a sneaking suspicion that this might be true and knew
that he had to level the Rakbrat with his first charge, keep him down, and
whop the hell out of him on the ground.

A serious fight would come soon, it was clear. Rakama and Swane were
constantly after one another, and there were brushes every day. Finally it
came from a silly incident between their dragons. After a five-mile march
one afternoon, the dragons headed for the plunge pool, and Vlok
accidentally tripped Gryf. Rakama said something nasty about Vlok.
Swane told him to apologize. They bounced up against each other and had
to be ordered apart by Dragon Leader Cuzo.

"Later!" they both growled.

That evening the camp was quiet enough. Men had eaten and were
sitting around before sleep claimed them. Bazil and Relkin were actually
at the far end of the camp, giving legal depositions, again, in the case of
Marneri vs. Porteous Glaves. A pair of scribes from Marneri, one hired by
Glaves and one from the crown attorney's office, took down their
responses to questions from a judicial assistant.

They had answered the questions two or three times before, during
earlier stages of the marathon trial of Porteous Glaves, who had once
commanded the Eighth Regiment. Yet again Glaves's case was being
appealed to the Marneri high court.

It was while they were absent that Rakama and Swane finally got down
to it. They met in the hallway behind the refectory. The only other boys
around were the newbies Curf and Howt, and neither of them wanted to
tangle with the older boys.