"Clayton Emery - Robin & Marian - Dowsing The Demon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emery Clayton)

strained.
The sheriff barked. "Mary? Ach! Where's your good-for-nothing brother --"
A roar like a lion's drowned him out. Flashing from the dark came a larger dark. A huge form shaggy as
a werewolf bowled the pale girl aside and leaped full in the sheriff's face. The official's club was slapped
aside. Steel flashed and the sheriff dropped with a howl, stabbed and spraying blood. The monster raised
his bloodied knife to stab overhand.
Robin stiff-armed Marian so hard she bounced in the road a dozen feet away. Lacking time to draw his
own knife, Robin simply jumped at the attacker. The blooded steel scythed down at him, but he ducked
under the blow. The monster's arm slammed on his shoulder hard enough to break the elbow. The knife
clattered into the street.
Hampered by the stinking body, half-tripping over the prostrate sheriff, Robin could only ram a fist into
the monster's belly. The mighty frame shook, but then a shoulder smashed his jaw. He slammed on his
back, the monster atop him. Two mighty hands found his windpipe.
With a shock the outlaw realized this wasn't a monster. It was a man -- dirty, hairy, with a wild beard
and tangled dark hair, in clothes so filthy they looked black. But the biggest shock came with another
roar, a windy gabble. Staring down the man's throat, Robin saw his tongue was gone, cut out, leaving a
waggling stump. He kicked to get free, swung at the man's ears, in vain. His vision tinged with
blackness...
A shadow above blacked out more light. The monster gasped, gargled blood that splashed on Robin's
face. The outlaw pushed free of the collapsing form and struggled up, rubbing his throat.
The monster, the man, was dead, pierced through the heart by a silver-hilted dagger. Peter stood above
him, pale as if he'd been strangled himself. His sheath was empty, his hands slack.
Marian bent over the dark man, looked to her husband, then tended the sheriff. His forearm had been
skinned to the bone.
"I should have known it'd be Nicholas, our town wastral," the official growled. Marian cut strips off his
smock for bandages. "He's served enough time in the stocks and at the wheel for robbing and beating
folks. It was a circuit judge ordered his tongue cut out when the swine cursed him to his face. I'll
probably get blood poisoning! Christ!"
He barked at the slim girl cowering in the doorway. "Mary, you damned slut! You're as guilty as him!
You'll pay for this!"
"Hush," Marian tied off a rude bandage and made the man wince. "The poor thing's scared witless. A
beast like that would terrify Saint Columba. You know this girl and her travails, you're wise enough to
see her sorrows, aren't you?"
She addressed the trembling girl. "Pray, fetch what your brother brought home and we'll depart. We
shan't harm you. I give my word."
The girl disappeared, like a ghost in the sunlight, and reappeared lugging an iron strongbox. She set it on
the threshold and prised open the lid. Inside was a handful of silver coins and several dozen copper. "I
didn't know," the girl squeaked. "I didn't know what he'd done. I -- I didn't -- know." Marian laid a hand
on her arm to shush her.
Leaning against the doorframe, the sheriff groused, "That stinking changeling bastard butchered those old
folks for this paltry sum? Damned little for two lives."
"Three," said Marian. "How's your throat, Rob?"
Robin massaged his Adam's apple and waved. Every swallow burned, but he could breathe better than
the monster Nicholas. He moved to pick up the strongbox.
"I thought your name was Robert," the sheriff grunted.
The outlaw rasped. "I go by many names. Sometimes I get confused myself."
The sheriff sniffed. "You saved my life, too. I won't forget that."
Robin nodded. "And Peter saved mine." The boy didn't look up. He stood facing up the alleyway, eager
to be off.
Through all this, Denis the Doswer had stood to one side, his fat frame like a haystack, his lopsided dog