"Daley, Brian - Coramonde 01 - The Doomfarers of Coramande UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Daley Brian)

Byree dashed off as the wizard turned to Springbuck. *'What else can we do?"
Springbuck showed no sign of hesitance, knowing how important confidence was in a leader. Other, more vital abilities would come only with painful experience.
"Start some of the others assembling makeshift mantlets and have them brought up here. And set out buckets of water and earth or sand in case they loft fire arrows at us. We'll need anything we can get as polearms: scythes, flails, pitchforks, anything."
"Have you no orders for me?" Gabrielle asked with heavy sarcasm.
"Yes," returned the Prince, "you could gather some help and pull the birds' nests from the chimneys."
The patchwork command took shape quickly. A room was prepared for any wounded they might suffer. Springbuck walked among the men of Erub and divided them into subgroups, selecting those he deemed most alert and aggressive-looking for leaders.
By this time it was deep dusk and the cooking fires were burning in the two hearths of the main hall. Noticing that some of the Erubites appeared to resent his new authority, Springbuck commanded each subleader to pick two men for sentinel duty, and announced that he and Andre deCourteney would take first watch. This struck the peasants as fairЧthe Prince wondered what his father would have said about placating farmersЧ and the wizard raised no objection.
The two began to pace their circuits of the walls in opposite directions, and though the Prince would have liked to ask Andre a number of questions, he decided to keep his own counsel for the time being. Van Duyn was sure that the soldiers would come no closer to the castle, fearing his rifle and the deCourteneys, and so far he'd been right. Springbuck hoped that he would continue so; if there were a major assault now, they'd all be slain unless the outlander's weapon could kill many men all at once.
46
THE DOOMFARERS OF CORAMONDE
During the watch he felt the fatigue of the day overtake him. He considered the chain of events that had begun with Hightower's death, and pondered his new allies and their strange self-assurance.
At the end of the tour he and Andre awakened their relief, for the balance of the band had toppled into sleep after the exhausting day. He made- a final check of Fire-heel's accommodations and groped around by a dying fire until he came across an unfinished bit of sausage and biscuit.
Propped against a wall, he huddled in his cloak as it became chillier, and heard Andre snoring loudly nearby. He removed his war mask and gobbled the cold meal quickly, licking his fingers afterward and wishing that there were more.
Divesting himself of boots, demisleeves and sword belt, he went to sleep with his head pillowed on his saddle pad, not considering first that, without his mask, he would be recognized by those who saw him in the morning light.
Chapter Six
On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire?
WILLIAM BLAKE, "The Tyger"
"BREAKFAST, O Ku-Mor-Mai? said a female voice. But why did it use his father's title?
He burst to his feet, cloak flung aside in alarm. He found himself facing Gabrielle, who offered him a bowl of thick stew, no longer warm, and a succinct nod, even colder, for the day's beginning. He knew instantly what had happened and told himself with some chagrin that it would have happened anyway.
"You sleep like a dead man," the sorceress was saying, "long after others are up. But Edward said to leave it so."
Rather then extend the bowl in common hospitality she set it on the ground and turned to leave.
"Wait," he called after her. When she turned back he found himself with nothing to say.
"Ahh, who is Edward?"
"Edward is Van Duyn. Do they have- to teach you everything fresh each day?"
She left as be mumbled, "I didn't know." He wolfed the stew, watching his new compatriots bustle around the courtyard, carrying trash and rubble from the interior of the buildings and bearing arms to the ramparts. His meal downed, he buckled on demisleeves and pulled on his boots. Taking up mask and sword belt, he searched out Van Duyn and Andre, who were studying the countryside from the ramparts.
Andre greeted him with a friendly clap on the shoulder. "In truth," he declared, "I knew you as soon as ever I saw you yesterday, though you've changed. But
47
48
THE DOOMFARERS OF CORAMONDE
what brings the royal Heir to join us? I'm afraid we must ask."
The three sat on a make-do bench under the climbing sun while Springbuck told them the tale of his escape from Earthfast. He found himself irritated by Van Duyn, who was skeptical throughout, but discovered the wizard to be an amiable fellow and a cordial listener. Both showed keen interest in the portion of his story dealing with Eliatim's remarks. They asked questions, going back over the conversation almost word by word. By then the sun had grown warm and the Prince was glad to accept a gourd of water at the conclusion of his narrative. The two listeners were comparing thoughts on their new information when Gabrielle arrived.
"What preparations we can make have been made," she said. "I'd like to speak to you, Edward." The two left, arm in arm once more.
"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.
50