"Robert E. Howard - Conan - Drums of Tobalku" - читать интересную книгу автора (Howard Robert E)

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DRUMS OF TOMBALKU
(Draft)
A Conan Story
by Robert E. Howard

I
Three men squatted beside the water hole, beneath the sunset sky that painted the desert
umber and red. Two were Ghanatas, desert warriors, their tatters scarcely concealing their wiry
dark frames. Men called them Gobir and Saidu; they looked like vultures as they crouched beside
the water hole. The third was yellow-haired and gray-eyed; he was called Amalric.
Nearby a camel ground its cud noisily, and a pair of weary horses vainly nuzzled the bare
sand. The men munched dried dates cheerlessly, the desert men intent only on the working of their
jaws, Amalric occasionally glancing at the dull red sky, or out across the level monotony where
the shadows were gathering and deepening. He was first to see the horseman who rode up and drew
rein with a jerk that set the steed rearing.
The rider was a dark-skinned giant. His wide silk pantaloons were gathered in about his bare
ankles. They were supported by a broad girdle wrapped repeatedly about his huge belly; that girdle
also supported a flaring-tipped scimitar few men could wield with one hand. With that scimitar the
man was famed wherever the sons of the desert rode. He was Tilutan, the pride of the Ghanata.
Across his saddle bow a limp shape lay, or rather hung. Breath hissed through the teeth of
the Ghanatas as they caught the gleam of smooth, white limbs. A girl hung across Tilutan's saddle
bow, face down, her loose hair flowing over his stirrup in a rippling black wave. The giant
grinned with a glint of white teeth, and cast her casually onto the sand, where she lay laxly,
unconscious. Instinctively Gobir and Saidu turned. toward Amalric, and Tilutan watched him from
his saddle. Three Ghanatas and an oudander. The entrance of a woman into the scene wrought a subde
change in the atmosphere.
Almaric was the only one who was apparendy oblivious to the tenseness. He raked back his
rebellious yellow locks absendy, and glanced indifferendy at the girl's limp figure. If there was
a momentary gleam in his grey eyes, the others did not catch it.
Tilutan swung down from his saddle, contemptuously tossing the rein to Amalric.
"Tend my horse," he said. "By Jhil, I did not find a desert antelope, but I found this little
filly. She was reeling through the sands, and she fell just as I approached. I dunk she fainted
from weariness and durst. Get away from there, you jackals, and let me give her a drink."
The big man stretched her out beside the water hole and began laving her face and wrists,
trickling a few drops between her parched lips. She moaned presendy and stirred vaguely. Gobir and
Saidu crouched with their hands on their knees, staring at her over Tilutan's burly shoulder.
Amalric stood a litde apart from them, his interest seeming only casual.
"She is coming to," announced Gobir.
Saidu said nodiing, but he licked his lips involuntarily, animal-like.
Amalric's gaze travelled impersonally over the prostrate form, from the torn sandals to the
loose crown of glossy black hair. Her only garment was a silk kirde, girdled at the waist. It left
her arms, neck and part of her bosom bare, and the skirt ended several inches above her knees. On
the parts revealed rested the gaze of the Ghanatas with devouring intensity, taking in the soft
contours, childish in their white tenderness, yet rounded with budding womanhood.
Amalric shrugged his shoulders.
"After Tilutan, who?" he asked carelessly.
A pair of lean heads turned toward him, bloodshot eyes rolled at the question, then the
Ghanatas turned and mutually stared at one another. Sudden rivalry crackled electrically between