"Brian Daley - Doomfarers of Coramonde" - читать интересную книгу автора (Daley Brian)

He could think of only one tactic to meet the need, though he considered and discarded a desperate
fleche. He'd seen it only once, brought back from southern parts by Lord Roguespur and calledтАФwhat
was it?тАФ the "ballestra."
Inspiration became motion. He poised his body and released it like a gyrfalcon from the gauntlet.
With barely adequate stance, he pushed off with his left foot, right preceding him in search of


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purchase.
34
THE DOOMFARERS OF CORAMONDE
He skimmed forward, fleet and lethal as the Angel of Death, the untried move coming to him with
surreal ease, into an immediate lunge. The actions came as one, executed virtually as the idea
occurred to him.
Eliatim's defense was there, but calculated to stop another feint or convictionless attack.,Bar
slid by and found his throat, and the blademaster's point shot past the Prince's ear. Abruptly,
Springbuck stood very close indeed to the great Eliatim as crimson gushed into Bar's blood
channels and across its basket hilt. He barely retained the presence of mind to pull his sword
free, and gaped in wide-eyed amazement His adversary sank to the unheeding surface of the Western
Tangent, corpse-face covered with steaming blood and disbelief.
The Prince slowly wiped Bar clean on Eliatim's sleeve and returned it to its scabbard.
"I shall go Doomfaring now, in earnest," he whispered through persistent rain, "and what final
lessons you have taught me tonight, I shall never forget!"
And his sudden laughter rang above the wind.
I galloped out of Earthfast, with running in my head, And putting leagues behind before the
Queen's guard
knew I'd fled
1 killed a man in darkness, to live until the day, And whether that were wrong or not, I can't,
unbiased,
say.
But he was dead and I alive, and you may take from me That as I fought, I knew that's how I wanted
things to be.
From The Antechamber Ballads, personal compositions attributed to
Springbuck
Chapter Five
So many gay swordes, so many altered wordes, and so few covered boardes,
saw 1 never So many empty purses, so few good horses, and so many curses, saw I never.
JOHN SKELTON,
"The Manner of the World Nowadays"
HE cast Eliatim's body back into the trees from which it had emerged. The horses presented a
knottier problem.
Determined to take his own gray favorite now that fate had given him the chance, he took the
heavy, overgilt saddle from Fireheel and hid it, too, among the pines. He gave brief thought to
taking along Eliatim's bow and quiver, but since his poor vision rendered him an inferior archer,
he decided to forego the trouble.
He then transferred the reconnaissance saddle to the powerful, long-legged Fireheel, blew out the
little lantern and hurled it in the general direction of its owner. Picking up his dampened cloak
and resuming it with a slight shiver, he mounted and took the reins of the riderless horse in his