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

wending their way from the edge of the forest into Erub. A smaller contingent had broken off and
was steering for the castle.
"Time to close up shop," said Van Duyn. Springbuck, standing near, put his shoulder'to the gate
and heaved, but couldn't budge it. Then portly Andre was next to him, and the balky gate moved
smartly at the wizard's push. Springbuck noted to himself that there must be muscle to spare under
all that avoirdupois.
"What about the portcullis and drawbridge?" the Prince asked as two men lifted a thick beam of
wood braced with iron across the gates.
"Rusted into place," replied Van Duyn, "but for now I suggest that we repair to the rampart.
Heralds are due, I think."
Springbuck followed the outlander and the deCourte-neys up the stone steps, arriving just as a
truce-f
Of Deaths, Of Departure
43
bearer and a herald rode up before the castle to parley. Another group sat their horses in the
meadow out of bowshot.
"Fetch me my rifle," Van Duyn instructed a youngster who had been on watch there, and Springbuck
puzzled over just what thing that might be. , The two soldiers wore long mail hauberks and steel
caps and had triangular shields slung beside them. The truce flag was a white rectangle of cloth


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on a lance decked with heron feathers.
"Now heed us, the castle," roared the herald. "For crimes both treasonous and seditious, all who
are within merit the death penalty. Clemency will be shown only to those who quit these premises
and surrender to the duly authorized representatives of His Grace, Strongblade, by right of
ascension imminent the Protector Suzerain of this place."
"Strongblade," the Prince repeated to himself, hand hard and resolute on Bar. Bey hadn't lost any
time having his puppet proclaimed rightful Heir.
Now Gabrielle had passed her brother a scabbarded sword of ancient design and Van Duyn held the
exotic implement he'd sent for, a "rifle." It was a curious club-like affair of wood and metal,
longer than a man's arm.
The scholar leaned out over the merlin's lip and spoke back. His teeth were showing, but it was no
smile. "Tell your commander and your counterfeit Ku-Mor-Mai that we don't surrender ourselves to
usurpers or their ass-kissing messengers."
"I wonder what's happened in Earthfast?" Andre was saying, one cogitative ringer at his thick
lips.
"тАФand if you've seen what I did to your friends in Erub," Van Duyn continued, apparently with huge
enjoyment, "you'll know enough to stay well away from our walls. Or would you like a taste of
this?"
He brought his rifle to his shoulder, sighting down it, Springbuck thought, rather as one would
squint down an arrow to gauge its trueness. There came an explosion.
A spit of flame and smoke shot from the armament's end and a clot of dirt leaped between the feet
of the herald's horse. The air was filled with the same smell
44
THE DOOMFARERS OF CORAMONDE
that the Prince had noticed lingering in the air in Erub, and the horses threatened to go mad,
eyes rolling white and ears flattening to their skulls in terror as they screamed in fear.