"Esther M. Friesner - Giants in the Earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friesner Esther M)

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 - Chapter 11

with a rockтАФPOW!тАФright between the eyes, and when he hit the dirt I took his own sword and I cut his
head off. They don't come much deader than that."
"As Your Majesty says," one of David's generals replied soothingly. The royal council was made up of
nothing but generals, the Mighty Men of Israel, with a case-by-case visit from the occasional prophet-
without-portfolio. "And yet, evidence to the contrary is even now standing without our city gates, single-
handedly blocking traffic and interfering with peaceful commerce."
"What I don't understandтАФ" said the king. "What I honestly do not understand at all, no matter how hard
I try, is why in the name of the Unnameable you, my so-called generals, haven't just sent out the army to
deal with the, er, impediment to peaceful commerce. Giant or no giant, there's only one of him."
The generals looked sheepish enough to give David bad flashbacks to his boyhood. At length, one of
them broke the uneasy silence.
"True, Majesty, that would be the sensible thing to do. But before we could dispatch so much as a patrol
of spearmen to confront the giant, he issued . . . the challenge."
"The challenge?" David echoed. "What challenge?" He was leaning his fists on the conference table and
Tirzah noted how very white his knuckles were turning, coupled with the fine beading of perspiration on
his brow. He was also breathing a bit raggedly, all of which indicators led her to believe that he knew
damn well what challenge.
"The challenge to single combat," General Eliezar said. "The same challenge he gave to King Saul's
troops the first time you killed him. The time you thought you'd killed him." He was the youngest man
on the king's council and as such did not have the brains of a kitten when it came to survival off the
battlefield. He simply did not know any better than to assume that when the king asked a question, he
wanted an honest answer. His colleagues exchanged looks that were equal parts pity and thankfulness
that Eliezar was there, about to take the royal slingstone for the team. Better him than them.
"I . . . did . . . kill . . . him." The words only just managed to escape the king's mouth through tightly
gritted teeth. "Not for the first time; for the only time! I cut off his bloody head! Don't you know
history?"
"I know there's more being written every day," Eliezar replied, as obliviously cheerful as ever.
"Good. Then go write some," David snapped. "Get your scrawny butt the hell down to the barracks, pull
together a troop of men, and take down that giant!"
"Majesty?" Eliezar raised one eyebrow in bewilderment at his sovereign's orders. "Goliath's challenge
wasn't leveled against the army. What he said wasтАФ"
"How many times must I repeat myself?" King David's bellow shook cedar dust from the throne room
rafters. "That is not Goliath! Goliath is dead."
"Not according to him. He says he's Goliath, he's got Goliath's armor, and his appearance has attracted a
whole bunch of veterans from King Saul's army, all testifying that they recognize him as Goliath. He
says he's not leaving until you come out and face him in hand-to-hand combat to the death. No backup
troops, just you and your armor-bearer, if you need one. He says you'd better wear armor, because he
can put a spear through a twenty-five-year-old plane tree at one hundred paces."
"Is that all?" The king's voice had gone very low and growly. It was a warning sign the young general
did not seem to recognize or heed.
"Yes. Wait, no: He also says that after all these years you've probably gotten fat." Eliezar smiled


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radiantly, duty done. He was woefully unaware that the rest of the council were edging away from him