"Cook, Glen - Black Company 05 - Shadow Games" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cook Glen)

"Hagop," I said, "see what you can read from the signs. Lady. Do you know these people? Do you recognize their crest?" I indicated fancywork on the coach door.

"The Falcon of Rail. Proconsul of the empire. But he isn't one of those. He's older, and fat. They might be family."

Hagop told us, "They were headed north. The brigands overtook them." He held up a scrap of dirty cloth. "They didn't get off easy themselves." When I did not respond he drew my attention to the scrap.

"Grey boys," I mused. Grey boys were imperial troops of the northern armies. "Bit out of their territory."

"Deserters," Lady said. "The dissolution has begun."

"Likely." I frowned. I had hoped decay would hold off till we got a running start.

Lady mused, "Three months ago travelling the empire was safe for a virgin alone."

She exaggerated. But not much. Before the struggle in the Barrowland consumed them, great powers called the Taken watched over the provinces and requited unlicensed wickedness swiftly and ferociously. Still, in any land or time, there are those brave or fool enough to test the limits, and others eager to follow their example. That process was accelerating in an empire bereft of its cementing horrors.

I hoped their passing had not yet become a general suspicion. My plans depended on the assumption of old guises.

"Shall we start digging?" Otto asked.

"In a minute," I said. "How long ago did it happen, Hagop?"

"Couple of hours."

"And nobody's been along?"

"Oh, yeah. But they just went around."

"Must be a nice bunch of bandits," One-Eye mused. "If they can get away with leaving bodies laying around."

"Maybe they're supposed to be seen," I said. "Could be they're trying to carve out their own barony."

"Likely," Lady said. "Ride carefully, Croaker."

I raised an eyebrow.

"I don't want to lose you."

One-Eye cackled. I reddened. But it was good to see some life in her.

We buried the bodies but left the coach. Civilized obligation fulfilled, we resumed our journey.

Two hours later Goblin came riding back. Murgen stationed himself where he could be seen on a curve. We were in a forest now, but the road was in good repair, with the woods cleared back from its sides. It was a road upgraded for military traffic.

Goblin said, "There's an inn up ahead. I don't like its feel."

Night would be along soon. We had spent the afternoon planting the dead. "It look alive?" The countryside had gotten strange after the burying. We met no one on the road. The farms near the woods were abandoned.

"Teeming. Twenty people in the inn. Five more in the stables. Thirty horses. Another twenty people out in the woods. Forty more horses penned there. A lot of other livestock, too."