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

hand. Moreover, when he cautiously licked that handтАФ

It was then that the Cimmerian noticed the sign on both the jugs and the

baskets. It was the Fish-Eaters' sign of an offering to an unknown spirit. The

tribe had five chief gods, each with his own sign, and a sixth sign for spirits,

good or evil, who came from none of the five.

Beer and mealie-bread, fruit and dried fish, would be a welcome addition to his

diet. They would also be stolen from something as near a god as made no

difference.

No lover of priests or believer in their babble, the Cimmerian doubted the gods

cared much for what men did or left undone. He had also spoken truly to Belit

when he said of the gods, "I would not tread on their shadow," and who could say

how hard he was treading on whose shadow with this little theft?
There were wise thieves and foolish thieves, and Conan walked the forests of the

Black Coast only because years ago in Zingara, he had learned the difference. He

would be a wise thief and return the offerings from whence they had come.

He had just risen to take the first return step when a woman's scream sounded

from well down the trail. Then Conan heard war criesтАФsome of them Bamula, some

in no tongue he recognizedтАФfierce gruntings, and another scream.

As he snatched for weapons, Conan let the offerings fall from his hand; let the

spirits pick them up if they so wished. A single leap took him over the other

offerings and the tree trunk. Vines looped serpent-like around his legs but he

pulled free, without sound and almost without slowing.

He had a spear in his left hand and the broadsword-blazing in his right as he

plunged to the trail.

***

Kubwande and the warriors watching the rear whirled at the sudden din, raising