"Brooks, Terry - Heritage 01 - The Scions of Shannara" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brooks Terry)

cheon and the man collapsed in a heap.

"You have used magic in defiance of Federation dictates and
thereby endangered the public.'' The speaker did not even bother
to glance at the fallen man. "You will be taken ..."

He never finished. An oil lamp dropped suddenly from the
center of the ceiling to the crowded ale house floor and exploded
in a shower of flames. Men sprang to their feet, howling. The
speaker and his companions turned in surprise. At the same
moment the tall, bearded man who had taken a seat on the
platform's edge earlier came to his feet with a lunge, vaulted
several other astonished patrons, and slammed into the knot of
Seekers, spilling them to the floor. The tall man leaped onto the
stage in front of Par and cole and threw off his shabby cloak to
reveal a fully armed hunter dressed in forest green. One arm
lifted, the hand clenched in a fist.

"Free-born!" he shouted into the confusion.

It seemed that everything happened at once after that. The
decorative netting, somehow loosened, followed the oil lamp
to the floor, and practically everyone gathered at the Blue
Whisker was suddenly entangled. Yells and curses rose from
those trapped. At the doors, green-clad men pounced on the
bewildered Seekers and hammered them to the floor. Oil
lamps were smashed, and the room was plunged into dark-
ness.

The tall man moved past Par and cole with a quickness they

16 The Scions of Shannara

would not have believed possible. He caught the first of the
Seekers blocking the back entrance with a sweep of one boot,
snapping the man's head back. A short sword and dagger ap-
peared, and the remaining two went down as well.

"This way, quick now!" he called back to Par and Coll.

They came at once. A dark shape clawed at them as they
rushed past, but cole knocked the man from his feet into the
mass of struggling bodies. He reached back to be certain he had
not lost his brother, his big hand closing on Par's slender shoul-
der. Par yelled in spite of himself. cole always forgot how strong
he was.

They cleared the stage and reached the back hallway, the tall
stranger several paces ahead. Someone tried to stop them, but
the stranger ran right over him. The din from the room behind