"Paul B.Thompson, Tonya R.Carter. Darkness and Light ("DragonLance Preludes I" #1) (angl)" - читать интересную книгу автора

Who will it be, Tanis? A full-blooded elf maiden? But no, the elves
would despise you as a half-breed. You need a female version of
yourself to love." She marched away, leaving Tanis staring. "You'll
never find her!" Kitiara called from the darkness. "Never!"

The crickets had quieted under Kitiara's shouts. In their own
time they began to sing again. Tanis stood alone in the night, finding
no comfort in their song.



Chapter 2
High Crest
The sky hab not yet lost its violet hue when Sturm
reached the farrier's shop. Tirien, the farrier, had his estab-
lishment in a vallenwood tree. The winding ramp to Tirien's
shop was doubly wide and strongly braced for horses.
Tirien, ruddy-faced from leaning over forge fires, and with
heavily muscled arms and shoulders from wielding his farri-
er's hammer, was already up and about when the knight
arrived.
"Sturm!" he boomed. "Come in, lad. I'm just straighten-
ing some nails." Tirien's helper, a boy named Mercot,
plucked a red-hot spike from the furnace with a pair of
tongs. He set the bent nail in the groove atop Tirien's anvil,
and the brawny farrier smote it twice. Mercot flicked the
straight nail into a bucket of water. A serpent's hiss and a

wisp of steam arose.
"I need my horse, Tirien," said Sturm.
"Right. Mercot, fetch Master Brightblade's animal."
The boy's eyes widened. Rings of soot around them made
him look like a startled owl. "The chestnut gelding?"
"Aye, and be quick about it!" said Tirien. To Sturm he
continued, "Reshod him, as you asked. A good mount."
Sturm paid his bill while Mercot led Tallfox, his horse, to
the lower platform. Sturm had bought Tallfox from a Que-
kiri tribesman only a few weeks before, and he was still
learning the horse's manners.
He shouldered his bedroll and pack and descended the
ramp to where Mercot had tied his mount. Tirien's hammer
rang out again, banging twisted scrap iron into arrow-
straight horseshoe spikes.
Sturm distributed his baggage over Tallfox's sides and
rump. He filled his water bottle and heard, "You're late."
Kitiara was slouched in a corner under the livery's eaves.
She was wrapped to her ears in a red horse blanket.
"Am I?" asked Sturm. "The sun is just rising. When did
you get here!"
"Hours ago. I slept here," she said, casting off the blanket.