"Harrison, Harry - Hammer 1 - The Hammer and the Cross" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

Shef plodded out into the courtyard of the king's great wooden hall, new-built within
the square of the old Roman ramparts, into the dim light of the spring evening, almost too
tired to walk straight. And yet, inside him, something stirred, something hot and excited.
Council? Great ones? They would decide the fate of the prisoner, the mighty warrior. It
would be a story to tell Godive, one that none of the wiseacres of Emneth could match.
"And keep your mouth shut," a voice hissed from inside the stable. "Or he will have
your tongue torn out. And remember: Ella is king in Northumbria now. And you are no kin
to my father."
Chapter Two
"We think he's Ragnar Lothbrok," King Ella asked his council. "How do we know?" He
looked down a long table with a dozen men seated round it, all of them on low stools
except for the king himself, who was on a great carven high seat. Most of them were
dressed like the king, or like Wulfgar, who sat at Ella's left hand: in brightly colored cloaks,
still pulled round them against the drafts that swirled in from every corner and closed
shutter, making the tallow-dipped torches flare and eddy; gold and silver round wrists and
brawny necks; clasps and buckles and heavy sword-belts. They were the military
aristocracy of Northumbria, the petty rulers of great blocks of land in the south and east of
the kingdom, the men who had put Ella on the throne and driven out his rival Osbert. They
sat on their stools awkwardly, like men who spent their lives on foot or in the saddle.
Four other men stood out against them, grouped at the foot of the table as if in
conscious isolation. Three wore the black gowns and cowls of the monks of St. Benedict,
the fourth the purple and white of a bishop. They sat easily, bending forward over the table,
wax tablets and styli ready to record what was said, or to pass their thoughts to one another
in secret.
One man made ready to answer his king's question: Cuthred, captain of the bodyguard.
"We can't find anyone to recognize him," he admitted. "Everyone who ever stood
face-to-face with Ragnar in battle is dead -- except," he remarked courteously, "the gallant
thane of King Edmund who has joined us. However, that doesn't prove this one is Ragnar
Lothbrok.
"But I think he is. One, he won't talk. I reckon I'm good at getting people to talk, and
anyone who won't is not a common pirate. This one for sure thinks he's somebody.
"Another, it fits. What were those ships doing? They were coming back from the
south, they'd been blown off course, they hadn't seen sun nor stars for days. Otherwise
skippers like that -- and the Bridlington reeve says they were good -- wouldn't have got into
that state. And they were cargo ships. What cargo do you take south? Slaves. They don't
want wool, they don't want furs, they don't want ale. Those were slavers on their way back
from the countries down south. The man's a slaver who's a somebody, and that fits Ragnar.
Doesn't prove it, though."
Cuthred took a heavy pull at his ale-mug, exhausted by eloquence.
"But there's one thing that makes me sure. What do we know about Ragnar?" He
looked round the table. "Right, he's a bastard."
"Church-despoiler," agreed Archbishop Wulfhere from the end of the table. "Ravisher
of nuns. Thief of the brides of Christ. Assuredly his sins shall find him out."
"I dare say," agreed Cuthred. "One thing I have heard about him is this, and I've only
heard it about him, not all the other Church-despoilers and ravishers there are in the world.
Ragnar is very big on information. He's like me. He's good at getting people to talk. The
way he does it, I hear, is this" -- A note of professional interest crept into the captain's
voice. -- "If he catches someone, first thing he does -- no talk, no argument -- is gouge one
eye out. Then he still doesn't talk, he reaches round and gets the man's head ready for the
next one. If the man thinks of something Ragnar really wants to know while he's getting