"David Drake - Hammer's Slammers 16 - Other Times Than Peace" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

the Commander's entourage almost from the moment he'd strode into the palace still splashed with the
orange blood of the barb king.

The top barb aide was named Three-Spire. Froggie had seen him before and would've been just as
happy never to see him again.

The troopers clashed to attention. Froggie crossed his right arm over his cuirass in salute, sharply enough
to make the hoops clatter.

"Sir!" he boomed. "Third Century of the Fourth Cohort, all present or accounted for!"

The Commander stood up, though he didn't bother to get out of his chariot. The barbs sharing the
vehicle with himтАФall this Commander's aides were barbs, the first time Froggie remembered that
happeningтАФcontinued to talk among themselves.

"Very good, warrior," the Commander said. He wore a thin, tight suit that might have almost have been
blue skin, but his face was pale behind the enclosing bubble of a helmet. His garb was protection of some
sort, but he wouldn't need the huge bodyguards if he didn't fear weapons. "Don't let sloth degrade your
unit while you're on this assignment. No doubt my Guild will have fighting for you in the future."

Even without using the chariot for a reviewing stand, the Commander would be taller than any trooper in
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the legion. Back in the days before Crassus, though, Froggie had seen Gauls who were even taller, as
well as heavier-bodied than the blue-suited race.

The Commander turned to Slats and spoke again; this time the words that came from the lavaliere
around the Commander's neck sounded like the squeak of twisted sinews: they were in Slats' language,
not Latin or any other human tongue. The administrator spread his six limbs wide and waggled
submissively, miming a bug flipped on its back.

Fixing Froggie with a pop-eyed glare that was probably meant to be sternтАФlanguage could be
translated; expressions couldn'tтАФthe Commander resumed, "Obey the orders of the administrator I've
provided you with as though his orders were mine. You have your duty."

Three-Spire said something to the Commander. The barb wore one of the little translator plates and
must have spoken in the Commanders own language, instead of speaking barb and letting the
Commander's device translate it.

The Commander flicked his left arm to the side in his equivalent of a nod. "I'll be checking up on you," he
added to Froggie. "Remember that!"

"Yes, sir!" Froggie boomed, his face impassive. "The Third of the Fourth never shirks its duty!"

Three-Spire looked at the girls with dawning comprehension; his topknot bristled with anger, bringing its
three peaks into greater prominence. "You! Warrior!" he said. "Where's the leader of these females?"