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

Tobas was not well pleased with anything. His companions seemed to be
either fools or blackguards, which made him wonder which category he belonged
in. The ship was small, crowded, and stank of fish, and Tobas had doubts about
its seaworthiness. Worst of all, the meals were sparse and unappetizing,
consisting largely of stale bread and ill-flavored cheese served with cheap,
warm beer.
Even this food, however, was better than nothing, and his narrow,
scratchy hammock was better than sleeping in the streets.
He could not quite bring himself to complain to the recruiter about the
conditions; but by the second night at sea, he could no longer resist
complaining to someone and unburdened himself to the rather plump, baby-faced
young man, roughly his own age, in the adjoining hammock.
"Oh, but it's an adventure!" Tillis Tagath's son burbled happily.
"Hardship and sorrow toughen a man for battle!"
Tillis, in Tobas' opinion, was very definitely one of the fools among the
recruits.
"I don't think they're toughening us for battle," Tobas replied. "I think
they're just too cheap to do better. It makes me suspicious about that reward
of a hundred pounds of gold."
"Oh? Do you think they're lying?" Tillis turned and stared at him with
wide, worried eyes.
Tobas sighed. "Not exactly lying, perhaps," he said. "But exaggerating a
little."
"Oh, but they wouldn't dare refuse anything to the man who slays the
dragon! What would the people think? Surely the peasants would rise up against
any king so treacherous as to refuse the kingdom's savior what might be due
him!"
Tillis, Tobas thought, talked like a storyteller and was undoubtedly
aboard the foul-smelling and nameless little ship as a result of listening to
too many storytellers. "I wouldn't put much trust in peasants," he said. "Nor
in kings, either. Do you know anything about this place we're going to, Dwomor
I think it's called?"
"It's in the mountains in the Small Kingdoms, and they say it was the
original capital of Old Ethshar."
Startled, Tobas asked, "Who says so?"
"The Dwomorites, of course!"
"Oh, of course." He settled back in his hammock again. From what he had
always heard, virtually every one of the Small Kingdoms claimed to be the
original capital -- or else its government claimed to be the rightful
government of all Ethshar. Or both. If any capital had ever actually existed,
its location was long since forgotten. "Tillis," he asked, "how do you expect
to kill a dragon?"
"I don't know," Tillis confessed. "I hadn't really thought about it. How
big a dragon do you suppose it is?"
"I don't know," Tobas replied. "But it's big enough to eat people."
"That's pretty big," Tillis said, his voice hushed and uncertain. Then,
more confidently, "But a good sword and a stout heart should serve!"
"Tillis," Tobas said in exasperation, "unless you've been hiding it
somewhere in the hold, you haven't got a sword."
"No, I don't, but I can get one from the castle armory, I'm sure."