Читать книгу Lady Knight - Tamora Pierce, Tamora Pierce - Страница 15

The next day Kel rose before dawn and used the quiet time before sunrise to take her glaive outside onto ground still hard from the night’s cold. There she practised, working her way through the complex pattern dances that were combinations of strikes, blocks, and feints strung together so the warrior could build strength and stamina with each step. When she finished, she cleaned the glaive and stowed it in her tiny bedchamber. After that she went to the mess hall, where the morning cooks had started breakfast. As they stirred porridge, fried ham, and set out bowls of honey, bread, and pitchers of milk, Kel thought about her day.

Baird, Wyldon, Merric, and Elbridge took their breakfast in headquarters with Owen to serve them. Neal staggered to the cookhouse after the dawn trumpet sounded. ‘Figured you’d be here,’ he said, yawning, as he slumped onto the bench across from her. Tobe, then Dom arrived shortly after he did.

Wyldon, Elbridge, and Owen rode north after breakfast, taking the extra soldiers and several wagons of supplies on to the new fort, Mastiff. Before they left, Wyldon and Kel settled on a schedule of meetings and messages so they would keep up to date with one another.

Once the district commander, his squire, and the captain had gone, Haven’s residents learned that their officers ate not in headquarters, as the captain had, but in the mess hall: Baird and Merric joined Kel and Neal on that second day. Once everyone was at least half awake, they discussed the day’s schedule, making plans so they didn’t interfere with each other’s duties.