"part2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Keith Brooke - Lord of Stone)

[Autumn: The Year of Our Lords, 3963]

1

'A man answers the call of his people ... and so he answers
the Call of the Lords.'
- The Book of the World, ch.8, v.68.

They heard the first gunshot as the train pulled into the
station.

Bligh's grip tightened on Madeleine's hand just as the shot
was answered by three more. Facing them, a woman stared back
blankly, her scrawny arms wrapped like honeysuckle around the
tall wicker poultry basket resting on her lap. Two young
girls by her side giggled and hid their faces when Bligh
glanced in their direction.

The train lurched to a halt and Bligh and Madeleine joined
the throng by the carriage's door. Movement brought life back
to Bligh's legs, numb from an hour or more on a narrow wooden
seat. At the exit he realised Madeleine was watching him
closely. They had been lovers since the summer yet still he
felt a self-conscious heat prickle his skin. He leapt to the
cobbled platform and used his bulk to steady himself against
the flow as he helped Madeleine down.

"Anasty." They spoke the name of Trace's capital city
together and then laughed. The whipcrack of another gunshot
sounded - far too close - and they allowed the crowd to sweep
them through the station-house and out into the street.

"We should find somewhere in which to stay," said Bligh, his
Traian distinguishable from that of a native only by its
grammatical correctness.

Madeleine slung her light bag over Bligh's shoulder and
kissed him tenderly on the cheek. She flicked dark hair back
from her face and turned a full circle to look at the city.
"The boarding houses won't be full," she said. "We have
plenty of time."

Holding hands, they walked on the pavement, heading in the
general direction of the Old Town. Crooked buildings lined
the street, three or four storeys high and perhaps two
centuries old. Boards covered some of the small windows and
bullet-scars and soot marked the stone facades. Here and
there, outside shops and seemingly ordinary houses, long
lines of people stood resolutely in turn.