The Rain Wild Chronicles: The Complete 4-Book Collection. Robin Hobb

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СКАЧАТЬ Anxiety vied with the excitement in her stance. And no wonder. The dragon she had chosen had risen to her feet and was regarding Alise with interest. It was much bigger than it had looked from the deck of the barge. And blue, very blue. The creature’s hide sparkled iridescently in the sunlight. The eyes she had turned on Alise were large, much larger than seemed proportionate to the creature’s head. They were a coppery brown, with a slit pupil like a cat’s, but unlike a cat’s eyes the colour of the dragon’s eyes seemed to melt and swirl around the iris of her eye. It was unsettling. The creature gave a guttural call.

      Alise turned her back on him and hastened toward the dragon. ‘Yes, of course. I apologize for keeping you waiting, beauteous one.’

      If the dragon had been proportional and perfectly formed, she might have been beautiful, as a prize bull or a stag was beautiful. But she was not. Her tail seemed short compared to her long neck, and her legs were stumpy. The wings that she now lifted and spread seemed ridiculously small and floppy for a creature of her size, and uneven. They reminded Sedric of a parasol that the wind had blown inside out, presenting the same aspect of flimsy ribs and uneven fabric. He stood up, tucked his lap-desk under his arm and set off across the mud in pursuit of Alise.

      A commotion off to one side made him halt. A small red dragon with a boy clinging to its back was thudding ponderously along the beach. ‘Open your wings!’ the lad was shouting. ‘Open your wings and flap them. You got to try, Heeby. Try really hard.’

      And in response, the misshapen creature spread out wings that were not even well matched. One was larger than the other, but the dragon obediently flapped them as it ran. Its ‘flight’ ended a moment later as it charged directly into the river. The boy yelled in dismay and then shouted, with laughter in his voice, ‘You got to watch where we’re going, Heeby. But that was good for a first try. We just got to keep at it, girl.’

      He was not the only one who had stopped to stare at the spectacle. Dragons and keepers alike were frozen. Some of the keepers were grinning and others were horrified. He could not read any expression on the dragon’s visages. After all, how would one tell if a cow were amused or offended? Alise, after one moment of staring in shock, turned back to her target and once more hurried off.

      His longer legs soon caught him up with Alise despite her dogged trot. She seemed to be talking to the dragon. ‘You are glorious beyond words. I am so thrilled to finally be here, and to speak with you like this is beyond my wildest dreams!’

      The dragon lowed back at her.

      For the first time, he really noticed the young girl beside the dragon. She had rested her makeshift pine-bough broom on her shoulder. She didn’t look pleased to see them. The scowl on her face and her narrowed eyes made her look even more reptilian. For that was his first impression of her. Lizard-like, he would have said of her scaled face. He had thought her hands were caked with mud, but now he saw that her fingers ended in thick black claws. Her braided black hair looked like woven snakes, and her eyes glittered unnaturally.

      ‘Alise,’ he said warningly, and when she didn’t respond, he raised his voice more commandingly. ‘Alise, stop a moment! Wait for me.’

      ‘Well, hurry then!’

      She paused, but he sensed that she would not wait long. In two strides he caught up with her completely. In the guise of taking her arm, he caught hold of her. ‘Be careful!’ he cautioned her in a low voice, pitching his words to carry through the dragon’s vocalizing. ‘You know nothing of the dragon. And the girl looks distinctly unfriendly. Either one or both of them may be dangerous.’

      ‘Sedric, let go! Can’t you hear her? She says she wishes to speak to me. I think the best way to insult her and anger her is to ignore such a request. And speaking to the dragons is exactly why I came here. And it’s why you are here, too! So follow me and please, have your pen ready to record our conversation.’

      She tried to pull free of him. He kept his grip and leaned down to peer into her face. ‘Alise, are you serious?’

      ‘Of course I am! Why do you think I came all this way?’

      ‘But … the dragon is not speaking. Unless mooing like a cow or barking like a dog conveys some meaning to you. What am I to record?’

      She looked at him in confusion that became dismay and then, inexplicably, sympathy. ‘Oh, Sedric, you cannot understand her at all? Not one word?’

      ‘If she has spoken a word, I haven’t understood it. All I’ve heard is, well, dragon noises.’

      Almost as if in response to his comment, the dragon released a rumble of sound. She swivelled her head to face the dragon. ‘Please, I beg you, let me have a moment with my friend! He cannot seem to hear you.’

      When Alise met Sedric’s gaze again she shook her head in woe. ‘I’d heard that there were some who could not understand clearly what Tintaglia said, and a few who could not even perceive she was speaking at all. But I never thought you would be so afflicted. What are we to do now, Sedric? How will you record our conversations?’

      ‘Conversations?’ At first he’d been annoyed at her childish pretence of talking to the dragon. It was the same annoyance he always felt when people greeted dogs as ‘old man’ and asked ‘how my fine old fellow has been’. Women who talked to their cats made him shudder. Alise, as a rule, did neither, and he’d thought her calls to the dragon had been some new and unwelcome Rain Wilds affectation. But now, to insist that the dragon was speaking to her and then to offer him her pity – it was too much. ‘I’ll record them just as I would log your conversations with a cow. Or a tree. Alise, this is ridiculous. I’ll accept, because I must, that the dragon Tintaglia had the ability to make herself understood. But this creature? Look at it!’

      The dragon writhed its lips and made a flat, hissing noise. Alise went scarlet. The young Rain Wilder beside the dragon spoke to him. ‘She says to tell you that although you may not understand her, she understands every word you say. And that the problem is not in her speaking, nor even in your ears, but in your mind. There have always been humans who cannot hear dragons. And usually they are the most arrogant and ignorant ones.’

      It was too much. ‘Keep a civil tongue in your head when you address your elders, girl. Or is that no longer taught here in the Rain Wilds?’

      The dragon gave a sudden huff. The force of her exhaled breath blasted him with warmth and the stink of the semi-rotted meat she had just eaten. He turned aside from her with an exclamation of disgust.

      Alise gave a gasp of horror and pleaded, ‘He does not understand! He meant no insult! Please, he meant no insult!’ An instant later, Alise had seized him by the arm. ‘Sedric, are you all right?’ she demanded of him.

      ‘That creature belched right in my face!’

      Alise gave a strangled laugh. She seemed to be trembling with relief. ‘A belch? Was that what you thought it? If so, we are fortunate that was all. If her poison glands were mature, you’d be melting right now. Don’t you know anything of dragons? Don’t you recall what became of the Chalcedean raiders who attacked Bingtown? All Tintaglia had to do was breathe on them. Whatever it was she spat, it ate right through armour. And right through skin and bone as well.’ She paused, and then added, ‘You have insulted her without meaning to. I think you should go back to the ship. Right now. Give me time to explain your misunderstanding of her.’

      The Rain Wilds girl spoke again. She had a husky voice, a surprisingly rich contralto. Her silver gaze was both unsettling and compelling. ‘Skymaw agrees with the Bingtown woman. Whether you’re СКАЧАТЬ