"John Dalmas - Yngling 1 - The Yngling" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dalmas John)

apprentices, watching two warriors argue in the muddy
beast trail. In his eighteenth summer, Nils's beard
was still blond down, but he stood taller and more
muscular than any sword apprentice of the Wolf Clan
for many years. And sword apprentices were selected
at puberty from among all the clan, even the sons of
thralls, for their strength and keenness.
The argument they listened to was
personal and not a clan dispute. The clans of the
Svear had met to hold a ting, and trade, and take
wives. And though the ting now had closed, clan feuds
were in abeyance until the clans dispersed to their
own lands. Only personal fights were allowed.
The warrior of the Wolf Clan was smaller
and his beard more gray than brown, but he refused to
back down before his larger, younger adversary. The
warrior of the Eagle Clan suddenly shot out his large
left hand to the necklace of wolves' teeth, jerked
forward and down. The older man saw the move coming
and kept his balance, al-
8
though the leather thong bit hard into his neck
sinews. He swung a knobby fist with his heavy
shoulder behind it, driving a grunt from the younger.
For a moment they grappled, each with a knife in his
right hand and the other's knife wrist in his left.
Briefly their arms sawed the air, their bare feet
carrying them in a desperate dance, muscles bunched
in their browned torsos while callused heels strove
to trip.
Then strength told, and the warrior of
the Wolf Clan toppled backward. His breath grunted
out as his heavier opponent fell on him; his left
hand lost its sweaty grip and quickly the other's
blade drove under his ribs, twisted upward through
heart and lungs. For a brief moment, as his blood
poured over his opponent's hand and forearm, his
teeth still clenched and his right arm strained to
stab. Then his body slackened, and the warrior of the
Eagles arose, panting and grinning.
Most of the watchers left. But Ragnar
Tannson and Algott Olofson still stood, glaring at
the killer of their clansman, for they were sword
apprentices and nearly matured. There were narrow
bounds on what they could say to a warrior, however,
for warriors were forbidden to kill outside their
class unless the terms of the feud specifically
allowed. And this was not a feud at all yet, although
it would probably be proposed and accepted as one.
But the wish to kill was on their faces.