"Barbara Hambly - Darwath 5 - Icefalcons Quest" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hambly Barbara)

Together they came toward the guard who stood just outside the ring of the wagons, within a dozen
yards of the Icefalcon and his sister. "Drann," said Vair, greeting the man on guard; he went on in the
ha'al tongue of the South, which the Icefalcon knew slightly, patting the man he led on the shoulder as he
transferred the guard post from one to the other, then taking Drann by the arm. Drann looked back at the
new guard and seemed to hesitate as Vair led him back across the camp to the black tent.
A finger of outstreaming light, and the silhouetted shape of the Truth-Finder inside. Then darkness.
There was no further outcry, but when the wind shifted the Icefalcon smelled blood.
The Empty Lakes People attacked at dawn. Halfway between midnight and morning the Icefalcon
resigned himself to the fact that Cold Death was going to win two arrows from him. But then, he had
never been able to win a bet with his sister.
The first he heard was an outcry among the mules, and the hard steely whap of the southern recurve
bows, then shouting. He and Cold Death had moved two or three times during the night and were
stationed now in a thicket of rabbitbrush between the camp and the first of the rolling hills.
They saw men running and struggling amid a tangle of mules, horses, and sheep within the circle of the
wagons. Animals leaped over and crashed into the chain barricades, driven by howling war-dogs. Then
the bulk of Barking Dog's riders swept up out of the coulee, striking like a spearhead at the wagons.
Arrows poured from behind the wagons. Riders plunged out, mounted and ready, dozens of them, old
White Mustaches leading with curved sword upraised. When the warriors of the Empty Lakes came near
to the wagons, men rushed from the cover of the heavy wooden wagon-boxes, swords flashing, Vair at
their head, urging them on. Twenty, thirty, forty men ...
"Where were they hiding all night?" demanded the Icefalcon, startled. There were close to a hundred and
fifty of the Alketch warriors, outnumbering their attackers where they had been outnumbered when the
sun went down.
Equally nonplussed, Cold Death shook her head.
They were there, however, and when swords began to cleave and men to struggle hand to hand, it was
clear they were no Wise One's illusion. After pushing back the initial charge they held their position
between the wagons, refusing to be drawn out, striking only when the Empty Lakes People rode close
enough to be hit.
The Alketch riders wheeled their horses, driving the attackers toward the spears. The Empty Lakes
People promptly scattered in all directions for the hills. One nearly rode over the two watchers in their
rabbitbrush blind.
"Can he make men from air?" the Icefalcon whispered. He saw enemies he knew-Gray Mammoth, Herd
of Wild Pigs, Long-Flying Bird, and others-fall bleeding in the long grass. Saw, too, the sudden thrashing
of the grass near the dying and the spots of trailed gore all around the bodies that spoke of demons.
"It seems he can," said Cold Death, bemused.
Not something that boded particularly well, thought the Icefalcon, for those under siege in the Keep of
Dare.
? Chapter 8

"She says she has never heard of such a thing in her life."
The Icefalcon sniffed. It was true that Ilae's life had not so far been very long, but it was true also that
Thoth Serpentmage had taught her for five years in the half-ruined Black Rock Keep in Gettlesand,
where most of the world's few remaining wizards now dwelled. It was also true that she was Ingold
Inglorion's student now.
"Ask her how it fares with the siege."
Over the wide plains the sun stood a few fingers above the mountains. Wood smoke gritted on the air,
and the smell of corn porridge.
The elementals of earth and water that oozed forth at the stench of blood and pain had sunk away into
their native stone and streams, and the demons faded into the bright air. The Icefalcon guessed they had
not gone far. Could Cold Death see them, he wondered, as the great shamans could?