"Cook, Glen - Filed Teeth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cook Glen)

"You're a damned idiot, girl," she muttered. "You could've picked something you could handle. But no, you had to have a canvas palace. You knew the boys would just fall in love and stumble all over themselves to help. Then you hired lunks with the chivalry of tomcats. You're a real genius, you are, girl."
The euphoria had reached her too. Usually she was louder and crustier.
Chenyth volunteered. Leaving me to battle with ours.
That little woman could shame or cajole a man into doing anything.
I checked Toamas. He was sleeping. His smile said he was feeling no pain. "Thanks," I threw Lord Hammer's way, softly. No one heard, but he probably knew. Nothing escaped him.
When the tents were up Fetch chose wood-gathers. I was one of the losers.
"Goddamned, ain't fair, Brandy," I muttered as we hit the ice. "Them sumbitches get to sit on their asses back there..."
He laughed at me. He was that kind of guy. No empathy. And no sympathy even for himself.
Some lessons have to be learned the hard way.
The circle had turned me lazy. Malingering is a fine art among veterans. I decided to get the wood-gathering over with.
What I did was go after a prime-looking dead branch laying just past the first standing tree. I mean, how hard could it be to find your way back when all you had to do was turn around?
I whacked and hacked the branch out of the ice. All the while Brandy and the others were cussing and fussing behind me as they wooled a dead tree.
I turned to go back.
Nothing.
I couldn't see a damned thing but ice, those gnarled old trees, and more ice. No circle. No woodcutters.
The only sound was the ice cracking on branches as the wind teased through the forest.
I yelled.
Chips of ice tinkled off the nearest tree. The damned thing was laughing! I could feel it. It was telling me that it had me, but it was going to play with me a while.
I even felt the envy of neighboring trees, the hatred of a brother, who had scored...
I didn't panic. I whirled this way and that, moving a few steps each direction, without surrendering to terror. Once a man has faced the legions of the Dread Empire, and has survived nights haunted by the unkillable savan dalage, there isn't much left to fear.
I could hear the others perfectly when I turned my back. They were yelling at me, each other, and Lord Hammer. They thought I had gone crazy.
"Will," Brandy called. "How come you're jumping around like that?"
"Tree," I said, "you're going to lose this round."
It laughed in my mind.
I started backing up. Dragging my branch. Feeling for any trace of footsteps I had left coming here.
Good thinking. But not good enough. The tree hadn't exhausted its arsenal.
A branch fell. A big one. I dodged. My feet slipped on the ice. I cracked my head good. I wasn't thinking when I got up. I started walking. Probably the wrong way.
I heard Brandy yelling. "Will, you stupid bastard, stand still!"
And Russ, "Get a rope, somebody. We'll lasso him."
I didn't understand. My feet kept shuffling.
Then came the crackle of flames and stench of oily smoke. It caught my attention. I stopped, turned.
My captor had become a pillar of fire. It screamed in my mind.
Nothing should burn that fast, that hot. Not in that weather. But the damned thing went up like an explosion.
The smell of sorcery fouled the air.
The flames peaked, began dying. I could see through.
The circle and my friends glimmered before me. Facing the tree, a few yards beyond, stood Lord Hammer. He held one arm outstretched, fingers in a King's X.
He stared at me. I peered into his eye slots and felt him calling. I took a step.
It was a long, long journey. I had to round some kink in the corridor of time before I got my feet onto the straight line path to safety.
I made it.
Still dragging that damned branch.
I stumbled. Lord Hammer's arm fell. He caught me. His touch was as gentle as a lover's caress, yet I felt it to my bones. I had the feeling that there was nothing more absolute.
I got hold of myself. He released me.
His shoulders slumped slightly as he wheeled and stalked back to the circle. It was the first sign of weariness he had ever shown.
I glanced back.
That damned tree stood there looking like it hadn't been touched. I felt its bitterness, its rage, its loss.. .And its siren call.
I scooted back inside the circle like a kid running home after getting caught pulling a prank.

V

"Chenyth, it was on fire. I saw it with my own eyes."