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

two left, arm in arm once more.


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"Does your sister find in me some offense?" the Prince asked Andre. "She seems hostile to me."
"Perhaps," was the answer. "Or again, perhaps her motives are quite the opposite. Of all the
things beyond my power, reading my sister's thoughts is foremost."
He took Springbuck on a tour of the castle's defenses. These were none too reassuring, though one
could scarcely hope for better under the circumstances. They discovered a number of the men
drilling awkwardly in the courtyard, and the Prince was so disgusted by their ineptitude that he
took charge and corrected then: more obvious lapses.
Others joined, and soon he was putting a sizable body of tyros through their paces in such fashion
that one might almost have thought that they knew what they were doing.
With a flash of inspiration he drew rude diagrams on the wall with a charred stick and showed them
where armor of various types was most vulnerable to arrow, pike or sword. Andre slipped away as he
began to explain the technique of pushing scaling ladders away from a rampart, undaunted by the
fact that he himself had never done it.
When reliefs were changed at the walls, those who came ofi duty were eager to try then- hand, and
the
Of Deaths, Of Departure
49
practice continued. There was no sign of any activity from the troops occupying Erub, except that
a company of light horse kept watch on the castle from a nearby rise.
The Prince began thinking of ways for the lot of them to escape under cover of night. He stopped
his impromptu lessons when the afternoon grew too hot for them, and once more sought Andre de
Courteney, who was thoughtfully gnawing a bit of jerked meat, sitting on a crenel.
"We cannot leave tonight," the wizard said in answer to Springbuck's ideas. "We can't afford to be
caught in the open come dawn."
The son of Surehand leaned against another crenel and waited.
"Van Duyn, Gabrielle and I can deal with those soldiers out there if the necessity arrives. For
that matter, the two magicians with them don't worry us overly." "But there's Yardiff Bey," the
Prince ventured. "But there's Bey," Andre agreed. "He can't touch us directly with spells, because
of this."
From his shirt he drew forth a chain of some black metal from which depended a shimmering,
chatoyant gem the size of a large grape, set in a simple retainer of silver. The Prince sensed
that he was in the presence of an object of tremendous consequence.
"Calundronius," Andre explained. "Because of it, my sister and I are alive. Because of it, no one
can spend a spell against us directly, or against anyone close to us whom we choose to protect.
But Bey intends to destroy us himself, nevertheless. Tomorrow, just at dawn, we have learned,
he'll summon a being of the half-world: Chaffinch, a winged fire-dragon who is proof, like this
gemstone, against enchantments."
Springbuck couldn't frame any remark, and so gulped air and listened.
Andre felt of his rough face with the back of his hand as he returned Calundronius to its shaggy
resting place. "Well, we think Van Duyn may have the solution here. Bey will summon Chaffinch in
Earthfast or some other place far from here and send him against us. Van Duyn's idea is to conjure
up a defense.
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THE DOOMFARERS OF CORAMONDE