"doyle, deborah - mcdonald, james d - circle of magic 02 - The Secret of The Tower" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doyle Debra)

heads away from the road they had been
following and rode into the forest to their left. The
knights strapped their shields to their arms and drew
their swords, riding forward as quietly as they could.
The dark, sturdy oak trees surrounded them, and the
branches arching overhead cast a deep shade, making
the forest even cooler in the cool day.
Randal shivered a little. I
don't like this place,
he thought. He turned to his cousin. "Walter-was
"What is it?"
- I can't explain.
. . .
"Nothing," said Randal.
They rode on. Before long, Randal heard noises
ahead: raucous shouts and laughter, the ringing note of
an ax biting into a log, the crackling of a
bonfire. The knights were at the edge of a sizable
encampment, but still they had not been noticed or
challenged.
"Sounds like somebody's having a party," Sir
Louis observed in a low voice. "Don't they
believe in keeping watch?"
A few moments later, Randal understood the rea
son for the lack of sentries. Between the close-set
tree trunks of the deep forest, he saw a
clearing full of rough-looking men. Most of them were
drinking from a huge cask that stood near the center of the
camp. Some of the men had already fallen asleep on the
leafy ground, and others sat singing and joking around a
roaring fire.
Randal spotted three horses tethered on the far
side of the clearing. Two stood in the shadows, but
dappled sunlight shone on the third. He
recognized it as belonging to one of the merchants who had
left the Basilisk in the clear light of the
previous dawn. The horses kept moving about
uneasily, made nerv ous by something that hung from a
tree nearby. At first Randal couldn't make out the
details of the hanging object, but then it twisted in
the wind and he saw the thing clearly.
It was the body of the merchants' guard.
III. Night at the Inn
RANDAL TURNED HIS head aside and shut his
eyes. Nearby, he heard Sir Guillaume
remark, "That fellow must have given them some trouble,"
and Sir Reginald grunted in agreement.
Randal opened his eyes again. Now that he knew who
to look for, he could see the merchants as well. The
two men lay trussed up on the ground, stripped of