"Kenneth C. Flint - Gods of Eire 01 - The Riders of the Sidhe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Kenneth C)

THE RIDERS OF THE SIDHE

She stooped to check him and nodded with satisfaction. He was unhurt and
merely stunned by the blow. Briskly she went to work, calling a nearby warrior
to her.

Together they lifted the unconscious boy and started down the narrow stairway.
The sound of battle dimmed as they spiraled down, through the wall, into a
fissure in the cliff-face below. As they descended, a growing sound of
rhythmic thunder echoed up to them. It was the sea.

At the bottom of the stairs a rough-hewn passageway opened onto a tiny scrap
of shore, sheltered by a cave worn in the rocks. She and the warrior readied
the small boat hidden there, raised its sail and set its tiller to take it
toward the east.

The whole cliff above them groaned, the solid rock of it fracturing from
another powerful blast. Fine rock showered into the water beyond the cave's
mouth. More fell from cracks that opened in the cave itself. The boat had to
be gotten clear!

"Hurry!" she said. "Get him in!"

They lifted and rolled the boy into the boat. There was no time for ceremony
here. Taillta breathed a silent prayer for his survival as she and the warrior
heaved the boat out to sea with all their strength.

It floated out sluggishly, its little headway slowed by the incoming waves. As
it hung there, drifting just beyond the cave's protecting overhang, another
massive blow struck the cliff above. Larger rocks plunged from the riven face
into the sea. Two boulders bracketed the tiny boat, rocking it like a shred of
bark.

She drew her breath in fright. It would be caught there. Crushed. He would be
killed after all!

"Manannan, help us!" she shouted to the sea. "He's all that's left to us!"

The boat, perhaps pushed by the waves raised by the fallen rocks, moved
forward. It cleared the cliff and the sheltering rocks and a breeze caught at
it, pulling it out.

Once more the force, like a giant hammer, slammed against the cliff. With
protesting rumbles, it shifted in its ancient bed. The whole structure of the
cliff-face was battered to a fragile point, ready to collapse. And, under its
base, the little cave began to give way from the pressure above. Cracks seamed
its water-smoothed sides like a crushed egg. They
THE SEA GOD W

widened rapidly, broken rock falling from them in a continuous hail. "My