"Clayton Emery - Forgotten Realms - Forged In Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emery Clayton)

ringing, the lieutenant rasped on. "No one knows why they attack or who
leads them. The navy admirals posit that a war between ocean-dwellers
has spilled onto dry land. A spy claims a coven of ixitxachtls, the flying
devil-rays, oppose a mad monster named Iakhovas, whose identity is not
known. Or else they support him. It's all unclear. I boarded this vessel in
the Border Kingdoms when I heard the news, because Calimshan needs me!
Our homeland needs all its citizens, to fight! The land races must band
together or else we'll be driven from the waves --"
A scream interrupted. Turning, more people screamed, and cried, and
gibbered with fear.

Alongside, rising, writhing, shedding seawater by the gallon, reared an
octopus tentacle higher than the mast and thicker around than a hogshead
barrel. The flesh was a mottled green and brown, the colors shimmering
and shifting in the bright spring sunshine. The largest suckers on that
gigantic arm were wide as a man's chest. As the watchers stepped back in
fear, another tentacle arose alongside, then a third.
Heart of the Lion had sailed the seas for thirty years, as boy and man, and
seen many fantastic sights, but nothing like this. He had time for only one
chilling thought -- octopi had eight arms -- so was not surprised to see
three more tentacles rising from the depths alongside the dromon. Like
loathsome sea-spawned trees, the six arms formed an obscene cage that
threatened to block the sun -- and trap the ships.

Like trees, the tentacles toppled and crashed on the wooden decks.

People scattered in all directions, some even jumping overboard. Severed
rigging snapped and pinged. Loose sails flapped all whichway. Barrels
stacked around the hold flipped and rolled like dice, and several split to
spill resinous liquid running in streams down the deck. Half a dozen pirates
and sailors were killed outright, crushed by the massive tentacles. Two
victims screamed as trapped broken limbs were pulped further.
The marine lieutenant, her captors, and two other pirates were hemmed in
with Heart of a Lion, trapped between living walls of slimy flesh tall as
hedgerows and stinking of the sulferous sea bottom. The ships shuddered
and groaned like donkeys overladen -- as Heart of a Lion knew they were.
Another minute and both ships might shatter. Sucked into the depths,
drowning, the crew would be minced like minnows by the yellow parrot's
beak that octopuses sported beneath their bulbous heads.
Buoyant as a cork, the merchant vessel yet shuddered as the deck tilted
alarmingly to starboard. Barrels skittered. Timbers groaned and planks
popped. The pirate captain wondered frantically how to fend off an attack
by a giant octopus. Strong men would need an hour to hack through these
rubbery limbs --
More noises, odd ones. From beyond the fleshy prison Heart of a Lion heard
shouts, curses, and the clank and ring of steel. Mixed in were guttural roars
like the rush of surf and the hooting of seals. What where they? How could
the ships suffer another attack? Could some fiendish master have ordered a
giant octopus to enwrap the ships, then sent unseen soldiers of the sea
swarming aboard?