"Adams, Robert - Horseclans 10 - Bili the Axe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Adams Robert)

"Now, though I know not how the others might feel, I would consider myself less than honorable were I to take leave of Duke Bili's service and enter into that of another while riding and wearing property not truly mine own."

"There can be no doubting the depth and breadth of your honor, my good captain," said Byruhn solemnly. "Indeed, it will be honor to me and to my House to number such a man as you amongst my officers. As for your mount and plate, fear not; I shall see to it that the owners receive full value in gold."

He turned then back to the rest. "If none else has a question of me, then retire to your tower quarters and relay my recent words to your companions and troopers, for I would know who will and who will not join under my banner by the coming morn. All have my leave to now depart my presence."

When all save Bili, Count Steev Sandee and the huge Kleesahk, Pah-Elmuh, had filed out into the frigid night, the prince said, "Cousin Bili, I have kept you from your wife and new son long enough this night, so you may retire also; the next matters I have to discuss are with Steev and Elmuh. On the morrow, we'll breakfast together, eh?"

With Bili departed abovestairs, Prince Byruhn quickly closeted himself with the grizzled old count and the hirsute hominid within a small, thick-walled study, the door of which was not only closed and heavily barred, but now guarded with bared and shining blades by the two northern noblemen.

His blue-green eyes gazing fixedly at his goblet, the silver stem of which he was rolling back and forth between his thick, callused fingers, the prince said resignedly, "I had hoped, when I rode down here, that this would not again be necessary, that affairs could be handled openly, honestly, completely aboveboard, this timeЕ but it seems that such is not to be, after all.

"I know that you don't like it, Steev, that you didn't like the way IЕ ahhh, recruited Duke Bili's squadron last. year, that you will like even less a repetition of that delusive manner of persuasion after having campaigned with these lowlanders for so long, but, man, I have no choice.

"Every ounce of gold that his majesty and I could scrape up is in my chest. There is barely enough to pay retaining fees for the Freefighters and purchase prices for such trained destriers as I had expected to be able to buy. But if, as the captain averred, the horses and the armor of most of the Freefighters I had expected to hire on is going to have to be paid for before they can sign on with me, the situation is flatly impossible; New Kuhmbuhluhn is rich enough in land, but hard specieЧgold or even silverЧis something else again.

"And Steev, Elmuh, we must have the help of Duke Bili's squadron! Even with them, there is a good chance that our arms will go down to eventual defeat. Without them, it's a sure certainty."

The huge, hairy Kleesahk spoke then. Gravely he spoke, but slowly, for his nonhuman vocal apparatus was ill suited to reproduce the speech sounds of mankind. "It is foreordained that victory shall be ours under the leadership of the Lord Champion, this Bili of Morguhn; such was prophesied long years before any of us was born, my lord prince, and the prophesies of the Old Wise One never have erred. This is why I have done your bidding before and will do it againЧputting into the sleeping minds of these lowlanders the desire to fight for New KuhmbuhluhnЧthough I like such underhandedness no better than does Count Steev, especially when it be imposed upon men and women who have already done so much for us in cleansing these lands of the detestable Ganiks.

"But if they remain not in New Kuhmbuhluhn, then our Lord Champion will not remain. Yet he is predestined to stay beside us and bring us victory at the last battle, so Fate must already have decided that I and the other Kleesahks do whatall my lord bids us do."

Having said his say, the hominid departed for the tower, wherein he and the other Kleesahks would mesh their powerful minds and, for a second time, do the bidding of Prince Byruhn.

When he had refilled the prince's goblet and his own, old Count Steev wrinkled up his scarred forehead and remarked, "You'll not be getting the full squadron, you know, my lord, no matter what arcane stratagems Pah-Elmuh and his Kleesahks wreak for you this night."

Byruhn gave over playing with the goblet and devoted his full attention to his elderly vassal, one side of his single red eyebrow arching up. "Riddle me not this night, Steev. The ride down here was exceeding wearisome and my body craves a long, warm sleep. The Kleesahks did well enough when last they cozened the lowlanders into fighting for us, so why should they be less successful this time around?"

The old nobleman shrugged. "Oh, I doubt not that the minds of all those brave men and women will be convinced that they must again risk lives and health for New Kuhmbuhluhn, my lord, but the bodies of not a few will be unable to follow the dictates of their minds."

"That many are wounded, then?" queried the prince. "I had understood that Cousin Bili sustained relatively few casualties in the course of his campaign."

The count showed crooked, yellow teeth and shook his gray head. "There are a few cripples, yes, but I speak not of them, my lord. It's the Moon Maidens. Many of them are gravidЧso big in the belly that they cannot even don their armor, much less mount a horse or ride north in the dead of a bad winter."

The prince relaxed and shrugged, recommencing his toying with the stem of the goblet. "A bad winter, yes, and all of the portents promise that it will be late in departing into spring, which will likely give most of these former Maiden warriors time to foal, I doubt me not. If these Skohshuns adhere to the same tactics they've followed before, they'll not even begin to raid until the spring rains are done, so there will be a plenitude of time for Cousin Bili and the squadron, with you and your men, to get up to King's Rest Mountain, where I'll be marshaling my forces."

Old Steev shook his head. "A warcamp be no place for babes at suck, lord."

Byruhn nodded once, forcefully. "Agreed. Nor do I want superfluous mouths to feed in New Kuhmbuhluhnburk, either the city or the citadel, not when the possibility of a siege be looming. Therefore, it were best that some few of the Maidens remain here with the spawn of themselves and their sisters. Even as poorly manned as it will, perforce, have to be, I can see no possibility of Sandee's Cot falling to these Skohshuns. Besides, the knowledge that their children are down here, in the south, will give the squadron an additional reason to see to it that the invaders are stopped, defeated, driven back, in the north. Eh?"

The old man sighed, turning his hands palms upward in a gesture of surrender. "What you have ordered wrought this night and these future things you plan, here, may well be necessary to your mind, lord prince, but still are they one and all dishonorable and I fear me that no good can come of such devious infamies. But they are your royal will, and I am your sworn man."
CHAPTER TWO

Brigadier Sir Ahrthur Maklarin, after easing his healing but still aching leg to a more comfortable position on the padded stool before his chair, took a swig from his jack of beer, then brushed the foam off his thick, drooping, gray mustache with a gnarled, callused and very hairy hand.

Showing worn teeth in a grimace of pain, he remarked, "Call it a great victory if you want to, Earl Devernee, but another such 'victory' could well be our ruination. Have you any idea how close, how damnably close, those feisty bastards came to hacking through, breaking our pike hedge? It just may be that we've finally met our match in these Kuhmbuhluhners. Perhaps it would be better to parley in the spring, rather than to go on fighting; they seem to be civilized and basically decent folk. Were the old earl, your father, still alive, I think that's what he'd do."

The young man to whom he had addressed his remarks did not answer; rather did he turn to the three other men, saying, "We've heard one opinion. Are there others?" He arched his thick brows and looked expectantly around. When a movement indicated a desire to speak, he nodded and said, "Colonel Sir Djaimz, what is your feeling on this matter?"