"David Gemmell - Dark Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gemmel David)

DARK MOON A CORGI BOOK : 0 552 14253 0
Originally published in Great Britain by Bantam Press,
a division of Transworld Publishers
PRINTING HISTORY
Bantam Press edition published 1996 Corgi edition published 1997
7 9 10 8 6 Copyright ┬й David Gemmell 1996
The right of David Gemmell to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All of the characters in this book are fictitious,
and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
is purely coincidental.
Condition of Sale
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not,
by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or
otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other
than that in which it is published and without a similar
condition including this condition being imposed on the
subsequent purchaser.
Set in 10/12.3pt Sabon by Hewer Text Composition Services, Edinburgh.
Corgi Books are published by Transworld Publishers,
61-63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA,
a division of The Random House Group Ltd,
in Australia by Random House Australia (Pty) Ltd,
20 Alfred Street, Milsons Point, Sydney, NSW 2061, Australia,
in New Zealand by Random House New Zealand Ltd
18 Poland Road, Glenfield, Auckland 10, New Zealand
and in South Africa by Random House (Pty) Ltd, Endulini, 5a Jubilee Road, Parktown 2193, South Africa.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham plc, Chatham, Kent.
Dark Moon is dedicated, with much love, to the memory of Olive 'Lady' Woodford, who taught me that
style is everything. A former dancer, she lost her left leg to cancer. The day after the operation she ordered
a bottle of champagne to 'toast the leg on its way' and six months later, with an over-size NHS artificial
limb strapped to her knee, stepped out onto a dance floor to waltz.
My thanks as always to my editor Liza Reeves, copy editor Jean Maund, and test readers Val Gemmell and
Stella Graham. Thanks also to Big Oz for the inspiration, and Mary Sanderson for the fingers of bone.
Special thanks to Alan Fisher for his many valuable insights into the mysteries of the craft.
Chapter One
Tarantio was a warrior. Before that he had been a sailor, a miner, a breaker of horses, and an apprentice
cleric to an elderly writer. Before that a child: quiet and solitary, living with a widowed father who drank in
the mornings and wept in the afternoons.
His mother was an acrobat in a travelling group of gypsies, who entertained at banquets and public gather-
ings. It was from her he inherited his nimbleness of foot, his speed of hand and his dark, swarthy good
looks. She had died of the plague when Tarantio was six years old. He could hardly remember her now,
save for one memory of a laughing girl-woman who threw him high in the air. From his father he had - he
believed - inherited nothing. Save, perhaps, for the demon within that was Dace.
Now Tarantio was a young man and had lived with Dace for most of his life.
A cold wind whispered into the cave. Tarantio's dark, curly hair had been shaved close to the scalp to
prevent lice, and the draught chilled his neck. He lifted the collar of his heavy grey coat and, drawing one
of his short swords, he laid it close to hand. Outside the rain was heavy, and he could hear water cascading
down the cliff walls. The pursuers would surely have taken shelter somewhere.
'They may be just outside,' whispered the voice of