"Farland, David - Runelords 5 - Sons of the Oak (v1.0)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farland David)

Something is there, Fallion realized. Something in the shadows of the trees, watching usЧa wight perhaps. The ghost of a shepherd or a woodsman.
The loud bleat of a sheep rode down from the woods above, echoing among the hills in the crisp evening air.
'Time to go," Borenson said, turning his horse; the others fell in line.
But the image of the cottage lingered, and Fallion asked, "The widow Huddard, she ... makes a lot of her own things. She sells milk and vegetables, honey and whatnot?" !
"And your question is?" Waggit asked.
"She lives well from her own labors. But I was bom a lord. What can I make?"
Fallion thought of the craftsmen at the castleЧthe armorмers, the alewives, the master of the hounds, the dyers of wool. Each jealously guarded the secrets of his trade, and though Fallion suspected that he could master any of those trades, he had no one to teach him.
Waggit smiled with satisfaction. "The common folk maмnipulate things," he said. "Blacksmims work metal, farmers till the land. That is how they earn their living. But a lord's art is a greater art: he manipulates people."
"Then we are no better than leeches," Fallion said. "We just live off of others."
Sir Borenson sounded so angry that his voice came out a near roar. "A good lord earns his keep. He doesn't just use others, he empowers them. He encourages them. He makes them more than what they could become by themselves."

Maybe, Fallion thought, but only because they know that he'll kill them if they don't do what he says.
With a sly grin, Waggit added, "A lord's craft can indeed be marvelous. He molds men. Take Sir Borenson here. Left to his own devices, he is but the basest of clay. He has the natural instincts of a ... cutthroatЧ"
"Nay," Daymorra threw in with a hearty laugh. "A lecher. Left to his own ways, he'd be a lout in an alehouse, peddling the flesh of young women."
Borenson blushed, the red rising naturally to his face, and laughed. "Why not both? Sounds like a good life to me."
"But your father turned Borenson into a lawman," Waggit said. "And there are few better. Captain of the Guard, at one time."
Fallion gave Borenson a long look. Fallion had heard that Borenson had been powerful indeedЧuntil his Dedicates had been killed. Now the guardsman had no endowments of brawn or of speed or of anything else, and though he had the respect of the other guards, he was the weakest of them all. Why he had not taken new attributes was a mystery that Falмlion had not been able to unravel.
Fallion knew that there were dangers in taking endowмments, of course. Take the brawn from a man, and you beмcome strong, but he becomes so weak that perhaps his heart will fail. Take the grace from a woman, and suddenly you are limber, but maybe her lungs won't unclench. Take the wit from a man, and you have use of his memory, but you leave an idiot in your wake.
It was a horrible thing to do, taking an attribute from anмother human being. Fallion's mother and father had abмhorred the deed, and he felt their reluctance. But why had Borenson turned away from it?
Borenson wasn't a real guard in Fallion's mind. He acted more like a father than a guard.
Waggit said softly, "The shaping of men is aЧ"
There was an odd series of percussive booms, as if in the distance up the mountain, lightning struck a dozen times in

rapid succession. The sound was not so much heard as felt, a jarring in the marrow.
Waggit fell silent. He'd been about to offer more praise for the Earth King. But he often worried about praising Fal-lion's father in front of the boys. Gaborn Val Orden was the first Earth King in two thousand years, and most likely the last that mankind would see for another two thousand. He cast a shadow that covered the whole world, and despite Fal-lion's virtues, Waggit knew that the boy could never come close to filling his father's boots.
Waggit had an odd sensation, glanced up the hill. Almost, he expected to see the Earth King there, Gaborn Val Orden, stepping out from among the shadow of the trees, like a nerмvous bear into the night. He could nearly taste Gaborn's scent, as rich as freshly turned soil. Nearby, a cricket began to sing its nightly song of decay.
Borenson drew a deep breath, and raised his nose like a hound that has caught a familiar scent. "I don't know about evil, but I smell death. There are corpses in the forest."
He turned his horse, and with a leap it was over the hedge and rushing up toward the pines. Waggit and Daymorra looked at each other, as if wondering whether they should follow, and Fallion made up their minds for diem. He spurred his horse above the hedge and gave chase.
In moments, they thundered over the green grass up the hill, leapt another stone fence, and found themselves under a dark canopy. The pine needles lay thick on the ground, wet and full of mold, muffling die footfalls of the horses. Still, with each step, twigs would break, like the sound of small bones snapping in a bird.
It seemed unnaturally bleak under the trees to Sir Borenмson. He'd been in many forests. The clouds above and the setting sun had both muted the light, but the black pine boughs seemed to hurry the coming of the night.
In the solemn forest, mist rose from the ground, creating a
haze, like an empty songhouse once the candles have been
snuffed out, after the last aria of the evening. I

They rode through deep woods for nearly half a mile beмfore Borenson found the bodies. They were riding up a steep draw, through trees so thick that even ferns could not grow beneath them, when they came upon five girls lying in the crooks of a mossy old oakЧpale flesh, white and bloodless, fingers and toes turned blue.
Each body was at a different height But all of them were well above the reach of wolves. All of die girls were young, perhaps five to diirteen years old, and most were naked. Their bellies looked swollen, as if they were pregnant.
But most horrifying were their expressions. They stared up with eyes gone white, and their mourns gaped wide, as if they had died in inexpressible fear or agony.
Both, Borenson suspected. His heart sank. His own daughter Talon, die oldest of his brood, was eight. At that moment he felt mat she was the most precious thing in his life. He glanced back, afraid that Fallion and Jaz would see die bodies, but it was too late. The princes were staring in shock.
Fallion peered up, horrified by what he saw. As yet, he had not learned die mysteries of how children were formed. He had never even seen a girl witii her domes off, and he knew mat what he saw now was evil and unnatural.
Up die hill, mere was a cracking sound in the woods, as if a horse had stepped on a branch. Everyone stopped and glanced uphill apprehensively for a moment, then Borenson turned back to me princes.
"Get mem away from here," Borenson told Waggit and Daymorra.
Borenson rode his horse near, placing himself between me princes and me girls in order to obscure meir view. And for a moment he just stared at two of me girls, wedged in the crook of me same branch, whose bodies lay almost even witii his eyes.
Bom girls had rips and cuts on meir flesh, bruises from rough handling. Bom had obviously been violated by a big man, for mere was bleeding and tearing in their most sacred places.

Borenson glanced at the ground and saw huge tracksЧas if an impossibly large bear had been circling the tree.
Waggit rode up and whispered, "The girls taken from Hayfold? All the way up here?"
Borenson nodded. Three girls had been kidnapped a couple of nights before from the village of Hayfold. Such crimes were almost unheard of since the coming of the Earth King. Yet more than three bodies were here now. Borenson wondered where the other two had come from.
"I'll cover the corpses," Borenson said. "We can bring a wagon up tonight to retrieve them."
He reached up, feeling more fatigued than his labors of the day could account for, and unpinned his green woolen cape. The lowest two girls were laid out side by side, and he imagined that his cape would cover both of them.
But just as he pulled the cape up, one girl moved.