The Complete Darkwar Trilogy. Raymond E. Feist

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      ‘A lot of wagon-driving too, and loading and unloading,’ said Zane. ‘And I learned how to swim!’

      Marie’s mouth opened and closed before she said, ‘You finally got over your fear of the water?’

      Zane blushed. ‘I wasn’t afraid. I just didn’t like it very much.’

      Tad sniggered. ‘He had a good teacher.’

      Zane blushed even more.

      Puzzled, Marie looked at Caleb, who said, ‘Let’s go to the inn and eat.’

      ‘Might as well,’ she offered. ‘I haven’t got enough here to feed you three.’ To the boys she said, ‘You two hurry ahead and wash up. We’ll be along in a minute.’

      After they left, she kissed Caleb again, passionately. Then she whispered, ‘Thank you.’

      ‘For what?’ he replied in a soft voice.

      ‘For looking after them. And for turning them into men.’

      ‘They’ve a way to go yet,’ he said.

      ‘But it’s a start,’ she said. ‘When Tad’s father died …’ She began to weep.

      ‘What is it?’

      ‘Just me being foolish,’ she said, forcing back her tears. ‘It’s just so wonderful to see you all, and so much has changed in so little time.’ She waved away the moment and took a deep breath. She preceded him out of the door and he fell into step by her side as they slowly walked to the inn.

      He looked at her in the failing afternoon light. ‘We’ll have a little time tonight, Marie, just the two of us.’

      She smiled. ‘That is most certain.’

      ‘How have you been getting by?’ he asked, noticing that she had lost weight since he had last seen her.

      ‘As always: I sell what I grow, and buy what I need. I take on a little sewing now and again when someone needs help and I am planning to buy some chickens soon so that I can have eggs to eat and perhaps a few to sell.’ She hugged his arm. ‘I get by.’

      He said nothing, but his heart almost broke as he realised what little thought he had given to her needs before he had taken her boys away. He slipped his arm around her slender waist and hugged her as they walked. After a moment of silence, he said, ‘Perhaps we can come up with something better than just getting by.’

      ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘Later,’ he said as they reached the inn.

      Dinner was almost festive. Even though it had only been six months, many of the local townspeople stopped the boys – after a second glance – to welcome them back and remark on how much they had changed. Several girls had also stopped them to let them know that they would be in the square after sundown should the boys happen by.

      At supper Marie gently informed the boys that Ellie was due to have a baby in a few months’ time. But the pair simply exchanged looks, and burst out laughing.

      ‘What’s so funny?’ asked their mother.

      The boys said nothing. Their feelings for the girl seemed distant now compared to the vivid memories of parting with the sisters. Over a three-day period all six girls had expressed individual regret at the boys’ departure in ways that until then, had been beyond either of their imaginations a year earlier.

      They hurried through supper, anxious to visit their friends. After they left, Marie looked around the otherwise deserted tap room of the inn and asked, ‘Are you staying here tonight?’

      Caleb rose and offered his hand. ‘We are staying here. I told the boys to sleep in their old beds tonight.’

      Marie said, ‘I expect they’re old enough to know what’s going on.’

      ‘They’ve known for a long time, Marie. But let’s just say that now they have a much fuller understanding.’

      ‘Oh!’ she said, as he led her up the stairs to his room. ‘You mean—?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘They are becoming men, aren’t they?’

      ‘That’s more than any mother should know,’ said Caleb as he led her into his room.

      The next morning, Caleb and Marie found Tad and Zane asleep in the small hut where they had been raised. Caleb roused them from the pallets with a couple of playful taps from his boot. ‘Get up, you two.’

      The boys arose with pallid complexions, bloodshot eyes and groans of protest. ‘Someone found a bottle of something, it seems,’ said Caleb.

      ‘Matthew Conoher and his brother James,’ said Zane. ‘It was … brandy, he said. Tasted more like wood varnish.’

      ‘But you drank it anyway?’ said Marie.

      ‘That we did,’ said Tad. He stood, stretched and yawned, wearing only his trousers.

      His mother looked at her son’s chest, stomach, shoulders and arms. ‘Where did you get all those scars?’ she asked, her voice revealing alarm and her eyes narrowing as she crossed the hut to trace a particularly nasty-looking scar on his right shoulder with her finger.

      Tad flinched as her touch tickled him. ‘I was carrying a pretty big stone up the path from the beach and it just got away from me. If I’d have let it go, I would have had to walk all the way back down the path and pick it up again, so I tried to hang on to it and it ripped right though my shirt.’

      She glanced at Caleb, then at her son. ‘I thought for a minute—’

      Tad grinned. ‘What? That Caleb had been beating us?’

      ‘Only a little,’ said Caleb. ‘And only when they needed it.’

      ‘No,’ said Marie, her expression slightly petulant as she became annoyed by their teasing. ‘I thought that perhaps it was from a weapon.’

      Tad brightened. ‘Not that one.’ He pointed to another faint scar along his rib cage. ‘Now, this one was from a sword!’

      ‘A sword!’ exclaimed his mother.

      ‘I’ve got one, too,’ Zane said, pointing to a long mark across his forearm. ‘Tad gave me that when I didn’t get my blade around fast enough on a parry.’

      ‘You two,’ she said firmly, pointing to the boys. ‘Get dressed.’ Turning she said, ‘Caleb, outside.’

      She led him out of the hut and said, ‘What have you done to my boys?’

      Caleb shook his head slightly and said, ‘Exactly what you thanked me for last night, Marie. I’m turning them into men. Things didn’t happen exactly the way I wanted …’ He paused for a moment. ‘Let me tell you about the ambush.’

      Caleb told her about СКАЧАТЬ