"Tara K. Harper - Wolfwalker 2 - Shadow Leader" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harper Tara K)

other side. She damped her thoughts to the path. Ahead of her,
sharp deer prints cut across the trail, and she ran around them
to keep them clear; the droppings were scattered and fresh, and
there, where one deer had turned suddenly, the whole herd had
bolted. Her feet kept a rhythm with the Gray Ones running
beside her. There were two voices now. Hishn's voice was
strong and clear; the second one a faded gray that crept into her
mind as if by mistake.
Two kilometers. Then three. A wide circle, nearly complete.
They had to be close. Dion frowned. Another wolf had joined
the other two, and their thoughts were not silent anymore. She
could hear them, and then the scent that rose suddenly to
Hishn's nose spoke more sharply to the wolfwalker than the
snarl that Hishn sent.
"Aranur," she whispered urgently. "Get down!"
He froze, catching himself midstride, and shot a look over
his shoulder. Behind him, Dion leapt to a thin log, stepped
across to a small rock, and disappeared into a fiat stretch of
grass that grew only a few sparse handspans high. Aranur
shoved his half-drawn sword back into its sheath, then jumped
from the path into a shallow dip behind an upended tree's
rootball. Flinging himself down, he pulled a redfern across his
chest, then stretched a loose branch over his face.
Ten meters away, Dion lay flat against the ground. She had
pulled her healer's band off, and it lay cool against her warm
skin inside her jerkin. The grass, half brown, half yellow,
covered her but barely, but her leggings and mail were so worn
that they blended in with the dirt. She pulled a clump of short
grass from the ground and set it on her hip; it would help hide
the space her body made in the clearing. In her mind, she heard
Hishn growl again and knew that the wolf had retreated up the
hill to stand in shadow. But the scent of men remained, and
Dion breathed silently, knowing that the Gray One was right.
There were scouts on the path.
One minute. Two. Would Aranur stay down? At this dis-
tance, she could not reach him through the wolf. Even her
brother Rhom could not hear the Gray One until he looked into
those yellow eyes. But Dion worried. Four minutes passed,
and then five. A pair of junko birds flew back to a branch over
her head, and a minute later a rabbit crept back to nibble on a
half-eaten leaf.
Gray One, she sent. Do you see them?
Like clumsy deer, Hishn sent back. Her lips curled back and
the bristle on her back was raised. They come.
The woman sorted out the sounds of the birds, then the
sounds of the wind in the leaves, and finally the steady pound-
ing of her own heart and lungs. And then the faintest sound of
something else reached her ears. She relaxed. She breathed
with the earth and stretched her senses like the wolf, listening
as each step brought the hunters closer. And then the sound