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

They rounded a corner, Madeleine navigating from memories of
earlier visits to Anasty, and there they came across their
first barricade. Bligh looked immediately for a pennant or
banner to identify the militia responsible. They had come
from Dona-Jez that morning, a town held by the Landworkers'
Alliance. Because of this, there might be problems if their
papers were examined by Government troops.

Above the broken line of rubble and sand-bags, a chequered
blue and white flag drooped in the sultry air and Bligh said,
"Syndicalist, it's okay." The Syndicalists, with their
aggressively confrontational history, were at the more
extreme end of the revolutionary spectrum, but infinitely
preferable to a Government jail.

"You have papers?" said an unshaven guard, somehow contriving
to look a fine figure in his shabby corduroy trousers and
coarse woollen coat.

Madeleine handed over their train tickets and her employment
card, Bligh his passport.

On seeing that Bligh had Wederian nationality the guard
beamed approvingly and said, "You like our girls, hmm? In
that case you will like Anasty, Friend, you will like it
greatly."

"One of them, yes," said Bligh. "I hope to like Anasty, too."
There were more gunshots now, but faint in the distance.
Still, Bligh searched the rooftops and windows. He found that
in some perverse manner he was actually enjoying the sense of
danger. He had never come so close to the fighting before.

"Ah, you are in love." The guard's smile grew even broader.
"That is very good."

"Is the fighting bad?" asked Madeleine. From her tone Bligh
could tell that she did not find the guard amusing.

"For the Government and the Queen it is," said another
soldier, joining them from a nearby building.

"A piece of advice, Friend," said the first, placing a hand
on Bligh's arm and standing so close that the smell of sweat
and cheap wine was almost unbearable. "If you want to have
love tonight then don't go near to the Old Town. That is
where the Army are, for now, and there is much fighting. Go
there and you might end up in a hospital or in a wooden
casket - a young man with the love juices flowing doesn't
want a thing like that."