"L. Sprague De Camp - The Goblin Tower" - читать интересную книгу автора (De Camp L Sprague)

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The Golbin Tower by L.
Sprague DeCamp
Chapter One
A LENGTH OF ROPE
"A CURIOUS CUSTOM," SAID THE BARBARIAN, "TO CUT
OFF your king's head every five years. I wonder your throne finds
any takers!"

On the scaffold, the headsman brushed a whetstone along the
gleaming edge of his ax, dropped the stone into his pouch,
squinted along the blade, and touched it here and there with his
thumb. Those in the crowd below could not see his satisfied
smile because of the black hood, whichтАФsave for the eye
holesтАФcovered his head. The ax was neither a woodcutter's tool
nor a warrior's weapon. Whereas its helve, carven of good brown
oak, was that of a normal ax, its blue steel head was un-wontedly
broad, like a butcher's cleaver.

The scaffold rose in the midst of the drill ground, outside of
the walls of Xylar City near the South Gate. Here, nearly all the
folk of the city were gathered, as well as hundreds from outlying
towns and villages. Around the base of the scaffold, a battalion of
pikemen in black meshmail over scarlet coats was ranked four
deep, to make sure that no unauthorized person reached the
scaffold during the ceremony, and likewise that the victim did
not escape. The two outer ranks faced outward and the two
inner, inward.

Around the three sides of the scaffold, the notables of Xylar, in
crimson and emerald and gold and white, sat on benches.
Another rank of soldiers sundered the quality from the
commonality. The latter, in brown and buff and black, stood in
an expectant, amorphous mass, which filled the greater part of
the field.

On the western side of the platform, this multitude surged
against the inner ranks of soldiery. Here the throng consisted
mainly of young men. Besides the hundreds of mechanics from
the city and peasants from the farms, it included a sprinkling of
the younger gentry. Hucksters wormed their way through this
throng, selling cakes, sausages, fruits, sardines, wine, beer, cider,
parasols, and good-luck charms. Outside the crowd of spectators,