Archiwum
- Index
- Forgotten Realms Anthologies 03 Realms of Magic
- Bain, Darrell & Berry, Jeanine Gates 03 World of the Sex Gates
- Cooper McKenzie [Menage Amour 161 Club Esotera 03] Minding Mistress (pdf)
- Dena Garson [Emerald Isle Fantasies 03] Ghostly Persuasion [EC Twilight] (pdf)
- Ian Rankin [Jack Harvey 03] Blood Hunt (v4.0) (pdf)
- 791. Weston Sophie Weselne dzwony 03 Zakochany książę
- Krentz Jayne Ann Eclipse Bay 03 Koniec lata
- Greene Jennifer Zapach lawendy 03 Szalenstwo chwili
- Hamilton, Laurell K Meredith Gentry 03 Seduced by Moonlight
- Jack L. Chalker Watchers at the Well 03 Gods at the Well of Souls
- zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- lafemka.pev.pl
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
"Itis a good defensive position." Was Griff trying to convince Rollant or
himself? Rollant couldn't tell. Maybe the company commander couldn't tell,
either. He went on, "If they have more men than we do . . ."
"How could our unicorn riders tell one way or the other, if they only ran
into ran from Ned's riders?" Rollant asked.
"That's a good question, Corporal," Griff said. "I haven't got a good answer
for you. I wish I did."
"We've been fighting this war for a long time now," Rollant grumbled. "Why
don't we have generals who know what the hells they're doing yet?"
"I think John the Lister has a pretty good idea of what he's doing," Griff
said. "If thatis the traitors' whole army north of us, we've got to slow it
down as much as we can. We haven't got the men to crush it all by ourselves."
"By the Lion God's claws, I'd like to try," Rollant declared.
Lieutenant Griff started to answer, then stopped and gave him a curious look.
It wasn't quite the ordinary curious look he would have given had he been
arguing strategy with another ordinary Detinan. It also held a certain
amount perhaps more than a certain amount of surprise. Rollant had no trouble
reading Griff's thoughts.Here's a blond who's more interested in fighting the
traitors than the commanding general is. Aren't his kind supposed to be
cowards and weaklings?
Wearily, Rollant hefted the company standard. Even more wearily, he said,
"Sir, you didn't let me keep this because I was afraid to fight the
northerners. You didn't promote me to corporal because I was afraid, either.
The more of those bastards we kill, the sooner this gods-damned war'll be
over."
"My," Griff said after a long, long silence. "Youhave got fire in your belly,
haven't you?"
"Who better to have fire in his belly than somebody who grew up bound to a
liege lord's lands and ran away?" Rollant replied. "I really know what we're
trying to knock down. Sir."
That produced another silence, even longer than the first. Rollant wondered
if he'd said too much, if Griff would take him for no more than an uppity
blond from now on. At last, the company commander said, "If all blonds had
your spirit, Corporal, we Detinans would have had a much harder time casting
down the blond kingdoms in the north after we crossed the Western Ocean."
He means well. He's trying to pay me a compliment, Rollant reminded himself.
He chose his words with care: "When we fight the traitors, sir, we've got
crossbows and iron-headed pikes and unicorns and siege engines and all the
rest, and so do they. What we fight with is even on both sides. If the blonds
back in those days had had all that stuff instead of bronze maces and asses
hauling chariots, and if they'd known more wizardry, the Detinanswould have
had a lot tougher time."
"So you think it was the quality of the equipment and magic, not the quality
Page 35
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
of the men?" Griff said.
"Of course, sir. Don't you?"
Again, Rollant wondered if he'd said too much. Griff startled him by
laughing. "That isn't the lesson Detinans learn in school, you know," he
remarked.
"Yes, I know it isn't. But don't you think it's true anyhow?"
Lieutenant Griff didn't answer right away. Rollant gave him credit for that;
a lot of Detinans would have. At last, his voice troubled, Griff said, "There
may besome truth in what you say, Corporal. But wouldn't you agree that the
first Detinan conquerors were also heroes for overcoming so many with so few?"
Now it was Rollant's turn to think before he spoke. He'd never tried to put
himself in the place of those first Detinans to cross the Western Ocean. His
sympathies lay with the blonds. Only reluctantly did he take the conquerors'
side in his mind. No more than a couple of hundred of them had come on that
first expedition to what was now Palmetto Province. They'd pushed inland till
they found the blond kingdom closest to the Western Ocean and they'd shattered
it. They might have been villains. They hadn't been weaklings.
His voice as troubled as Griff's, Rollant answered, "There may besome truth
in what you say, Lieutenant."
"Thank you," Griff said, which surprised him. The company commander
explained, "I've heard blonds educated men, men who'd lived all their lives in
the south and were never serfs say the first heroes were nothing but bandits
and robbers, and should have been crucified for what they did. That goes too
far, I think."
"Maybe," Rollant said. "But then, I've heard Detinans educated men who'd
lived all their lives in the south and were never liege lords say blonds were
nothing but cowards and dogs, and should have got even worse than what the
first conquerors gave them. That also goes too far, I think."
"That's different," Griff said.
"How?" Rollant asked. "Uh, how, sir?"
"Why . . ." Griff stopped. Undoubtedly, he'd been about to answer,Why,
because that has to do with blonds , or some such thing. Unlike a lot of
ordinary Detinans, he saw that wouldn't do here. He gave Rollant a lopsided
grin. "Have anyone ever told you you can be difficult, Corporal?"
"Me, sir?" Rollant shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about.
All I want to do is get to the bottom of things."
"And if that doesn't prove my point, I don't know what would." The lieutenant
waved to the low swell of ground ahead. "There's Summer Mountain." Not even to
Rollant's eye, trained by the low country of Palmetto Province, did it look
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]