"Clayton Emery - Lost Empires 03 - Star of Cursrah" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emery Clayton)

"No, look," laughed Amber. "He's flying!"
Their ragged friend suddenly stumbled backward from an alley and upset a lampseller's stall. Brass
oil lamps pinged and ponged as they scattered. Charging from the alley like a bull rushed a huge man
with a barrel chest and arms like smoked hams. He was a professional bodyguard to judge by the
family crest embroidered on his blue vest, and the brute's furious face was dappled with lip paint.
Behind him fluttered the beribboned houri who'd so adorned him.
"He must've banged right into them," Hakiim hooted with laughter. "Let's see him duck this bloke!"
Reiver might have dodged the angry bodyguard, but the lampseller, an old woman surprisingly
spry, thrust her malacca cane between the thief's legs. Reiver's foot rolled on a lamp and he sprawled
in a tangle of pipestem arms and dirty legs. The bodyguard pounced with great hairy paws and
snagged Reiver by one leg, hoisting him like a chicken. The elder hauled back her knobby cane to
knock Reiver's inverted head off.
Hakiim yelled, jumped, and caught the bodyguard's brawny arm, which drooped so Reiver's head
thumped on the cobblestones. Amber thrust herself between her friend and the old lampseller's cane.
Baggy trousers and embroidered vest whipping, Amber blocked the old woman's cane.
"Grandmother," she said breathlessly, "spare him, please!"
"You hussy!" The woman's crooked hand jabbed at Amber's face and she said, "Ras'lma!"
Amber saw a magic flash, like a tiny sun, explode in midair, and the world turned blue-black. "My
eyes!" she cried.
Blinded, Amber rubbed her eyes franticallyтАФa mistake, for she heard the cane whistle for her head.
Helpless, she ducked, felt it whiff across her kaffiyehтАФand smack Reiver's rump. The thief yelped.
"Amber, help!" Hakiim said as he tugged on the bodyguard's arm, still trying to shake Reiver loose.
The bodyguard planted his huge hand over Hakiim's face to shove him away, but the houri behind
jabbered, "Watch out!"
As the giant turned, Hakiim saw a blur and dropped to earth. The old woman's cane whistled over
Hakiim's head and smacked the giant square between the eyes. Howling, the bodyguard dropped
Reiver and clutched his bloody nose. Reiver spun in midair like a cat, touched the ground, and
scrambled up to run. The giant roared, the houri shrilled, the old woman cursed, and Amber rubbed her
streaming eyes.
Hakiim caught his friend's sleeve and said, "Let's go!"
"I can't see!" Amber shrieked.
"Here ... I'll lead you!"
Hakiim spun Amber on her heels to run and slammed her straight into a pole supporting the
lampseller's awning. A cloud of dusty, sun-faded canvas flopped while slippery lamps rolled
underfoot. Sprawled under billowing canvas, Amber and Hakiim crawled toward sunlight, for Amber
was gradually able to see around the big blue spot in her vision. Cursing, she rammed her head free of
canvas into sunlight and market noise and hissed as someone yanked her hair.
The painted houri, reeking of stale wine and cheap perfume, wrenched Amber's dark, glossy locks.
"You broke Maryn's nose!" she said. "His looks are ruined...." A hand with long blue fingernails made
to slap Amber.
"GetтАФoff!" Amber shot her left arm up, then hooked down viciously. The wrestling move broke
the houri's hold, though Amber lost a hank of hair. Bowling the houri backward to tumble on more
spilled lamps, Amber looked for Hakiim but saw only his headscarf and sandals. The rest was
obscured by flickering blue spots.
"We've lost Reiver!" Hakiim wailed.
"Never mind him," Amber carped. "We mustтАФ"
A roar like a volcano stopped her. At the top edge of her limited vision she saw the bodyguard's
face charging. Lipstick smeared his chin, blood painted his mouth and teeth, and his eyes threatened
murder. Amber squeaked.
A fat, wall-eyed trifin fish banged the giant's brow. Another fish, a flapping flatfish this time,