"Gordon R. Dickson - Dragon Knight 07 - The Dragon and the G" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

Dickson, Gordon R. - Dragon Knight 07 - The Dragon and the Gnarly King (v1.0) (html)proofed



Scanned by Highroller.

Proofed by Bzx33a.

Made prettier by use of EBook Design Group Stylesheet.



The Dragon and the Gnarly
King by Gordon R. Dickson
Chapter One
Heads down!" shouted Jim. "The next man who looks up at the arrows gets taken off the wall!
Pass that along."

He could see heads turning along the catwalk below the embrasures in the curtain wall as the
word was passed. Threatening to take them off the wall was probably the best way of making the
men obey.

He saw a few heads tilt down quickly on this front part of the wall where he himself crouched;
and a second later the wide-bladed war arrows rained down upon them, harmlessly for the most
part on the stone of the embrasures, the catwalk itself, or the open courtyard of the Castle behind
them.

Only one man, sitting crouched on his heels, fell over backward at the impact of an arrow falling
from a considerable height and driving into, if not through, his shoulder.

"You there!" called Jim. "Get down to the Bake-House and have them take that arrow out. Don't
try to do it yourself. SomeoneтАФLittle Ned, there, I mean Ned Bake-House, help him down the
steps! Give his helmet and spear to someone else and send them back up to the wall."

"Yes, m'Lord!" floated back the voice of Ned Bake-House, the somewhat roly-poly elder brother
of Little Ned, both Castle servants. He ran along the catwalk, crouching, hurrying to obeyтАФ
which was only proper, since the Baron, Sir James Eckert, the Lord not only of Malencontri
Castle but of its fairly extensive lands (ninety-eight percent Somerset wilderness though they
were) had given him a command.

It was one of the tenants, rather than one of Jim's handful of men at-arms or even one of the

file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/Gordon%20Dickson%20...Knight%2007%20-%20The%20Dragon%20and%20the%20G.htm (1 of 349)16-2-2006 15:17:52
 Dickson, Gordon R. - Dragon Knight 07 - The Dragon and the Gnarly King (v1.0) (html)proofed

Castle servants, who had been hit, thankfully; though to be sure it was really not because he was
looking up. It had just been blind bad luck. But everybody else on the catwalk around the walls
would think he had, which would help the others to keep their heads down as Jim and the veteran
men-at-arms had warned them to do.