"Hambly,.Barbara.-.Sun.Wolf.1.-.Ladies.Of.Mandrigyn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hambly Barbara)

politics as he had of war. Poison deaths were nothing new, and he had seen the symptoms of them all.

But he was damned if he'd let that sleek, toothy President win this one uncontested.

He was aware that he'd begun to stagger, the fog in his brain making the air glitter darkly before his eyes. Tiny stones in the road seemed to magnify themselves hugely to trip his feet. He was aware, too, that his pursuers were less careful than they had been. He could see the shadows of two of them, where they hid among the trees. Soon they wouldn't even bother with concealment.

Come on, he told himself grimly. You've pushed on when you were freezing to death; this isn't any worse than that. If you can make it to the next stand of rocks, you can take a couple of the bastards out with you.

It wasn't likely that the President would be with them, but the thought of him gave Sun Wolf the strength to make it up the long grade of the road, toward the black puddle of shadow that lay across it where the land leveled out again. He was aware of all his pursuers now, dark, drifting shapes, ringing as wolves would ring a wounded caribou. Numb sleep pulled at him. The shadow of the rocks appeared to be floating away from him, and it seemed to him then that, if he pushed himself that far, he wouldn't have the strength to do anything, once he reached the place.

You will, he told himself foggily. The smiling bastard probably told them it would be a piece of cake, rot his eyes. I'll give them cake.

In the shadow of the rocks, he let his knees buckle and crumpled to the ground. Under cover of trying to rise and then collapsing again, he drew his sword, concealing it under him as he heard those swift, light footfalls make their cautious approach.

The ground felt wonderful under him, like a soft bed after hard fighting. Desperately he fought the desire for sleep, trying to garner the strength that he felt slipping away like water. The dust of the road filled his nostrils, and the salt tang of the distant sea, magnified a thousand times, swam like liquor in his darkening brain. He heard the footsteps, slurring in the dry autumn grass, and wondered if he'd pass out before they came.

/ may go straight to the Cold Hells, he thought bitterly, but by the spirit of my first ancestor, I'm not going alone.

DimJy he was aware of them all around him. The fold of a

THE LADIES OF MANDRIGYN

27

cloak crumpled down over his arm, and someone set a light bow in the grass nearby. A hand touched his shoulder and turned him over.

Like a snake striking, he grabbed ai the dark form bent over him, catching the nape of the neck with his left hand and driving the sword upward toward the chest with his right. Then he saw the face in the starlight and jerked his motion to a halt as the blade pricked the skin and his victim gave a tiny gasping cry. For a moment, he could only stare up into the face of the amber-eyed girl from the tavern, the soft masses of her pale hair falling like silk over his gripping hand.

Under his fingers, her neck was like a flower's stem. He could feel her breath quivering beneath the point of his sword. / can't kill her, he thought despairingly. Not a girl Fawnie's age and frozen with terror.

Then darkness and cold took him, and he slid to the ground. His last conscious memory was of someone jerking the sword out of his hand.

CHAPTER ЧЧ 3 ЧЧ

"A

.RI SENT YOU AWAY?" STARHAWK LOOKED SHARPLY

from Little Thurg to Ari, who stood quietly at her side.

Thurg nodded, puzzlement stamped into every line of his round, rather bland-looking countenance. "I thought it funny myself, sir," he said, and the bright blue eyes shifted over to Ari. "But I asked you about it then, and you told me..."

"I was never there," Ari objected quietly. "I was never in Kedwyr at all." He looked over at Starhawk, as if for confirmation. They had spent the night with half of Sun Wolf's other lieutenants, playing poker in Penpusher's tent, waiting for word to come back from their chief. "You know..."

Starhawk nodded. "I know," she said and looked back at Thurg, who was clearly shaken and more than a little frightened.

"You can ask the others, sir," he said, and a pleading note crept into his voice. "We all saw him, plain as daylight. And after the Chief had gone off with that woman, I thought he met and spoke with Ari. May God strike me blind if that isn't the truth."

Slarhawk reflected to herself that being struck blind by God was an exceedingly mild fate compared with what any man who had deserted his captain in the middle of an enemy city was likely to get. The fact that they were in the pay of the Council of Kedwyr did not make that city friendly territoryЧ quite the contrary, in fact. You can dishonor a man's wife, kill his cattle, tool his goods, Sun Wolf had often said, and he will