[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

torso.
Simna grunted as he tossed short, tattered boots into a corner.  You mean when
last he chewed something. This lush has been drinking his meals for some
time.
 Perhaps we can get something solid into him in the morning, the herdsman
speculated.
Pausing in the process of undressing, Simna looked up curiously.  Why do you
care? He s a total stranger and, whether he knows everything or simply less
than that, not a particularly admirable one.
There are candidates more deserving of your concern.
 No doubt, Ehomba agreed,  but they are not here. He is. He studied the
mumbling, self-engrossed figure thoughtfully.  Tell me something, Knucker.
 What? Looking up, the exhausted little man they had saved from the demons of
the night locked eyes with his rescuer.  Who are you?
As they laid the drunk down on the clean sheets, Simna ventured a coarse
observation on the ingratitude
file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...ist%2002%20-%20Into%20The
%20Thinking%20Kingdom.htm (149 of 262)19-2-2006 17:04:59
Into the Thinking Kingdoms: Journeys of the Catechist, Book 2
of the inebriated.
When a man stands all day doing nothing but watching cattle and sheep crop
grass, he learns patience.
 It does not matter, Ehomba told him. Bending over the bed, he murmured,
 Knucker, what is the meaning of life?
Page 109
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Their charge was already half asleep. His lips moved and Ehomba leaned close.
He stood like that, inclined over the bed and its single diminutive occupant,
a look of intense preoccupation on his long, handsome face. After a moment he
nodded, and straightened.
 I thought so. His tone suggested quiet satisfaction.
Simna waited. When nothing further was forthcoming, he blurted sharply,
 Well?
The herdsman looked across the bed at his companion. Knucker was sleeping
soundly now and, as far as
Ehomba could tell, without difficulty.  Well what?
 Bruther, don t play the coy with me. What the meaning of life?
is
 Someday I will tell you. The herdsman started around the foot of the bed,
heading for the main room.
 Someday? What do you mean  someday ? Simna followed him, leaving the little
man in darkness and silence.
In the main room Ehomba contemplated the couch. After first removing his pack
and weapons, he began to arrange himself on the thickly carpeted floor.  When
you have grown up. Stretching out flat on his back, he closed his eyes and
crossed his hands over his lower chest.
 Grown up? Listen to me, master of mewling lambs, I m not one to take kindly
to a comment like that!
One eye winked open to regard the irate swordsman.  Take it any way you like,
but keep your voice down. If we make too much noise and wake the other
tenants, the landlord is likely to throw us back out into the street.
 Hoy, him? That soft little self-important innkeeper couldn t throw Knucker
out in the street, and that with him completely unconscious.
 Then if you won t be silent for his sake, be quiet for mine, Ehomba grumbled
irritably.  And get some rest yourself. It is not long until sunrise, and I
would prefer to spend as few nights as possible in this country that is proper
and civilized only during the day and dreadful and deadly after dark. With
that he rolled over, turning his back to the swordsman.
file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...ist%2002%20-%20Into%20The
%20Thinking%20Kingdom.htm (150 of 262)19-2-2006 17:04:59
Into the Thinking Kingdoms: Journeys of the Catechist, Book 2
 When I have grown up, is it? Growling under his breath, Simna divested
himself of pack, sword, and raiment and slipped beneath the sheets of the
spacious bed. It was still warm from the recent accelerated departure of its
former occupant. That did not trouble Simna ibn Sind, who had slept on
mattresses swarming with insomniac rats.
He fell asleep still angry, and dreamed of falling into a bottomless well
filled with unending buckets of jewels and precious metals. It would have been
a good dream, should have been a good dream, except for one pesky vexation.
Ehomba was there also, kneeling at the edge of the well looking down at the
swordsman as the latter tossed coins and gems about like colored candy. The
herdsman was not laughing derisively, nor was he heaping calumny upon Simna
for indulging wholeheartedly in his base desires. All the impassive,
compassionate herdsman was doing was smiling.
In his sleep, Simna ibn Sind tossed and muttered, unconsciously infuriated
without knowing why.
Breakfast was served in the room by household staff. Sitting up naked in the
big bed, the swordsman favored the pretty servant who brought their food with
a come-hither grin. Greatly to his chagrin, she ignored him completely. He did
not let her rejection prey upon him. He never did. Anyway, it made good sense.
Since they were ensconced upstairs, she was most likely not the downstairs
maid.
 Not bad, he told his companions as he masticated fresh rolls with jam and
butter, aepyornis egg, bacon, and fruit. As was his nature, he had completely
Page 110
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
forgotten the brief but heated disputation with
Ehomba of the night before. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]