"Simon R. Green - Forest Kingdom 3 - Down Among the Dead Men" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)

carrier pigeons, nothing. The King sent messengers to the fort. None of

them ever returned. Magicians and sorcerers tried to make mental contact

with the fort, but some kind of barrier kept them out. The King listened

to all the reports and grew steadily more worried. This particular fort

lay on the border between the Forest Kingdom and its neighbor, the Duchy

of Hillsdown. It had always been a disputed boundary, even to the point

of war, and in the chaos that followed the long night, Hillsdown had

made several attempts to settle the question permanently in its favour.

The new border fort had been built at the Forest King's command

expressly to discourage such actions, and shortly after it was

completed, that particular stretch of the frontier became suddenly very

peaceful again. The Duke of Hillsdown sent several threatening letters

and backed unobtrusively down, and that was that. Until last month.



MacNeil's hand settled comfortably on the pommel of his sword as he

studied the silent fort. There were no outward signs that anything was

wrong: the great stone walls were unmarked by fire or violence, and the

clearing looked still and peaceful. and yet there were no signs of life

either.



MacNeil stirred restlessly, and his horse shook its head uneasily,

responding to his mood. He patted the horse's neck comfortingly, but his

eyes never left the fort.
Duncan MacNeil was a tall, muscular man in his late twenties. Long blond

hair fell raggedly to his shoulders, kept out of his face by a simple