"Lawrence Watt-Evans - Ethshar 2 - With a Single Spell" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watt-Evans Lawrence)

"But I don't know how to make my fortune at anything else! I've never
learned to fight, or farm, or sail, or anything!"
"Well, you'll have to find something; because, Tobas, you are simply not
going to get anywhere as a wizard here in Ethshar. Go up to Shiphaven Market
and sign up with one of the recruiters there, that'll get you started."
"If it doesn't get me killed," Tobas replied under his breath. More
audibly, he thanked the wizard for her advice and politely took his leave.
That had been midafternoon; by dusk he was convinced he would need to
find some sort of work immediately, even if it meant leaving the city. When
the torches and lanterns in front of the shops began to be extinguished or
allowed to die, around midnight, he could see no alternative but Shiphaven
Market. He had not eaten since Alderamon's generous breakfast; his feet were
tired, and his knuckles sore from rapping on so many doors.
The thing that amazed him, however, was that he had covered less than
half the wizards in the area. The competition for magical business here, he
decided, would be much too fierce for him, even if he did pick up a few more
spells.
He remembered the shipmasters and the dethroned princess and shuddered
slightly at the thought of signing up with someone like that, with no clear
guarantees of just what might be involved.
He had little choice, however. Reluctantly, he turned north on Arena
Street and set out for Shiphaven Market.
Not surprisingly, given his unfamiliarity with the city, he got lost no
fewer than three times on the way and in the hours between midnight and dawn
there were very few passersby he could ask for directions.
Eventually, however, he arrived at his destination, only to find it empty
and deserted, hardly surprising, as dawn was still more than two hours off. He
settled down in a doorway to wait.
He was shaken roughly awake and sat up, blinking.
"What in Hell are you doing sleeping there? Don't you know that's against
the law? If you haven't got any place of your own, you go sleep on Wall Street
with the other beggars, you don't sleep here! We don't allow vagrants on the
city streets." The red-kilted soldier glared down at him, his left hand on his
hip and his right on the hilt of his sword.
"Oh..." Tobas managed, "I must have dozed off." Thinking as best he could
under the circumstances, he added, "I'm meeting a recruiter here."
"What kind of a recruiter?" the soldier asked suspiciously. "For the
Guards?"
"Ah, no," Tobas said, hoping desperately that the soldier would not be
offended by a lack of interest in a military career. "From the Small
Kingdoms." He was not actually sure what sort of recruiter he would choose,
but that seemed reasonable.
"One of those, ha? That's trouble enough, I'd say, without my adding to
it. Suit yourself, boy. But if I catch you sleeping in the streets of
Shiphaven again, I'll flog you half to death and then turn you over to the
slavers, this is a respectable neighborhood."
"Yes, sir," Tobas agreed immediately.
"I should turn you over to the slavers now, you know; that's the penalty
for vagrancy. Even a foreigner should know that."
"But I just dozed off! I wasn't really sleeping here!" Tobas spoke before