"Dan Parkinson. The Gates of Thorbardin ("DragonLance Saga Heroes II" #2) (angl)" - читать интересную книгу автора

pulsing glow. His first hammer was no more than a lump
of iron remelted, skimmed clean and shaped in a clay
mold. But with its help he crafted a second one - a ham-
mer that even a Hylar prince or Daewar merchant in the
finest halls of Thorbardin might have envied. For though
Chane Feldstone - orphaned and without a known
lineage - had been relegated to the lowly ranks of com-
mon delver and sometimes outsman in the teeming realm
within the Kharolis Mountains, still the high crafts came
to him easily when he turned his hand to them.

Often through the years of childhood he had watched
others of his age go off to apprentice at the trades of me-
talsmithy, stonecutting, and other such high callings.
Sometimes he had been envious that those so chosen had
someone of note to sponsor them. His hands had longed
for the feel of good tools, and his heart had yearned for
the chance to do such works as those more fortunate
would one day do. Still, he had not been alone in his cir-
cumstances. Among the seven cities of the undermoun-
tain kingdom there always were thousands of children
without access to great name or the comfort of wealth.
Children of the warrens and the ways, the offspring of
warriors who didn't come home or traders lost to the
outlands, orphans and waifs of all sorts. It was the way
of the dwarves of Thorbardin that these children be
cared for and receive at least some basic education so
they would never lack for work or the basic needs.
Chane had grown up like the rest, and had learned a
host of lesser skills that served him well. Only, there had
been times - times all through the years when some se-
cret part within him raged and strove for recognition.
Times there had been....
When he was yet a youngster, inches short of his full
growth of four feet six, Chane had been employed to
clean the smithing stalls of the ironworker, Barak Chi-
selcut. A piece of nickeliron had been cast aside, and
Chane retrieved it, put a high polish on it and returned it
to the master.
"A nice bauble," old Chiselcut had said, approving.
"So you enjoy metals, youngster?"
"Yes, sir. I like the feel of good metals, and the sound
and taste."
"Then keep this," the old dwarf told him. "Play with it
at the forge and anvil, if you like. But mind you get your
work done first."
For weeks, Chane had shaped the bit of nickeliron,
late in the sleeping hours when no one else was about,
and the small dagger he crafted from it had so pleased
Barak Chiselcut that the shopmaster gave the youth