"Henry Kuttner - The Creature From Beyond Infinity UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

As Thordred the Usurper stood before the throne of his queen, his savage face was immobile. Weaponless, fettered, he nevertheless glared with implacable fury at the womar~ who had spoiled his plans.
Zana met his gaze coldly. Her harsh features were darkly somber. -
"Well?" she asked. "Have you anything to say to me?"
"Nothing," Thordred grunted. "I have failed. That is all." The huge, almost empty throne room echoed his words eerily. -
"Aye, you have failed," the queen said. "And there is but one fate for losers who revolt. You tried to force me from my throne, and instead you stand in chains before me. You have lost, so you must die." -
- Thordred's grin mocked her calm decision.
"And a woman continues to rule our land. Never in history has this shame been put upon us. Always we have been ruled by men-warriors!"
"You call me weakling!" Zana snarled at him. "By all the
gods, you are rash, Thordred. You know well that I've never
shirked battle, and that my sword has been swift to slay. I
am strong as a man and more cunning than you." - -
"Yet you are a woman," Thordred taunted recklessly. "Kill me, if you wish, but you cannot deny your sex."
A shadow darkened Zana's face as she glared venomously
at her mocker. --- -
"Aye, I shall kill you," she said. "So slowly that you will beg for a merciful death. Then the vultures will pick your carcass clean on the Mountain of the Gods."
Thordred suddenly shouted with laughter.
"Save your words, wench. It is just like a woman to threaten with words. A man's vengeance is with a spear, swift and sudden. I-"
He paused, and a curious light grew in his amber eyes. - His -great body tensed as Thordred listened.
In the distance, a tumult grew louder and louder, like the beating of the sea. Suddenly it was thundering through the throne room.
Zana sprang to her feet, her lips parted in astonishment.

The vast doors at the end of the room burst inward. Through the portal poured a yelling mob.
"Thordred!" they roared. "Ho, Thordred!"
The giant grinned victoriously at Zana.
"Some are still faithful to me, it seems. They would rather see a man on the throne-"
A blistering curse burst from Zana's lips. She snatched a spear from a guard and savagely drove its point at the prisoner. But Thordred sprang aside, laughing, the muscles rolling effortlessly under his tawny skin.
He set his foot on the links of the chain that bound his wrists. His body arched like a - bow. The metal snapped asunder, and Thordred the Usurper was free!
The guards near the throne leaped at him. He ducked under a swift spear at the same instant that his fist smashed a face into a bloody ruin. And then the mob surrounded him, lifted him, bore him back.
"Slay him!" Zana shrilled. "Slay him!"
The mob swept back, out of the hail, through the great doors -and into the street.
But now Zana's cried brought a response. Armed soldiers rushed in through a dozen portals. They raced after the escaping prisoner, with Zana fearlessly leading them.
It was sunset. The western sky flamed blood-red. Down the Street the crowd seethed, to halt in an open plaza. Grimly menacing, they turned at Jay, Thordred at their head. He towered above the others with his chains dangling from his
-~ wrists and ankles.
Zana's men formed into a sizeable army, filling the street from side to side. - -
Arrows flew, hissing at the angry, triumphant mob. Over the city the low, thunderous muttering grew louder.
"Revolt! Revolt!"
It was civil war. -
But the conflict was not yet in contact. A space still lay between the two forces. Only spears and arrows had crossed it.
"Charge!" Zana shouted. "Slay them all!"
Grinning, Thordred raised high his lance and shook it deflantly.
The queen's soldiers drew erect, and like a thundercloud they began to move. Abruptly they were sweeping forward, irresistible, a tidal wave bristling with steel barbs. The pounding of their shod feet hammered loud on the stones, In the forefront raced Zana, her harsh face twisted with fury.

Thordred let fly his spear. It missed its mark. At the last moment the giant had hesitated, and his gaze went up to the western sky. Hj~ jaw dropped in awe. For the first time, Thordred was afraid. A scream rose, thin and wailing.
"Demons!" someone cried. "Demons!"
The soldiers slowed involuntarily in their charge, then one by one they halted. Struck motionless with fearful ~vonder, every man stood gaping toward the west.
Against the blood-red sunset loomed actual demons!
Giants, scores of feet tall, they were. Titans whose heads towered above the city's walls. A whole army of the monsters loomed black against the scarlet sky. These were not men! Shaggy, hump-shouldered, dreadful beings more human than apes but unmistakably beasts, they came thundering down npon the city. The frightful masks twisted in ferocious hunger. They swept forward- No one noticed that their advance made not the slightest
sound. Panic ~fruck the mobs. Both sides dropped their weapons to flee. -
From the sky a great, shining globe dropped. It hovered above the plaza. Two beams of light flashed down from it. One struck Thordred, bathing him in crawling radiance. The other caught Zana.
The man and the woman alike were held motionless. Frozen, paralyzed, they were swept up, lifted int5 the air. When they reached the huge globe, they seemed to disappear.