"Roland Green - Conan at the Demon's Gate" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Roland)

Prologue

The Pictish Wilderness, in the reign of Conan the Second, known as Conn:

My name is Nidaros, son of one who did not care to acknowledge me. Likely enough

he was a noble with a full purse and influence at Court, both of which he used

for my advancement. Otherwise I might be in the ranks of the Tenth Black River

Guards instead of commanding a company.

On the edge of the Pictish Wilderness, the patrols beyond the outpost line wait

for spring. The Picts in their native forests are no easy prey even when one

does not have to fight the snow and cold as well.

In the sixth year of the reign of Conn, son of Conan, King of Aquilonia, Great

Count of Poitain, Protector of Bossonia, and bearer of too many other titles to

burden you with here, spring came early. It was decided (I do not know by whom,
and it hardly matters anyway) that we should begin our patrols at once.

I looked from the sky to the face of the messenger (an officer of the elite

Black Dragons, the royal bodyguards) and back to the sky.

"At once?"

"At once."

"The ground is not yet dry enough to let a soldier put one foot in front of

another."

"That does not seem to stop the Picts. They have already raided farms along

Silver Creek."

I wished, not aloud, that demons fly away with Silver Creek and all its

Poitainian colonists. I cannot believe that any part of Poitain is so crowded

that folk with their wits about them would flee to a land where a Pict can spit

in their soup kettles any evening.

The messenger seemed to read my thoughts. He tapped the seal on the parchment. I