"Mercedes Lackey - Jihad" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

He stumbled, jarring every injury into renewed agony, and a white light of
pain blinded him. He thought he would die then, dropping in his tracks; then
he thought that the blackness of unconsciousness would claim him.

But the light did not fade; it grew brighter. It burned away the pain, burned
away thought, burned away everything but a vague sense of self. It engulfed
him, conquered him, enveloped him. He floated in a sea of light, dazzled, sure
that he had dropped dead on the road. But if that were true, where was he? And
what was this?

Even as he wondered that, he became aware of a Presence within the light. Even
as he recognized it, it spoke.

I AM I.



On the bank of the Palestine Railway above the huddle of Deraa they waited;
Sherif Ali ibn el Hussein, together with the two men that Aurens had
designated as his bodyguards, Halim and Faris, and the sheik of Tafas, Talal
el Hareidhin. "Tell me again," Ali said fiercely. "Tell me what it was you
did."

Faris, old and of peasant stock, did not hesitate, although this was the fifth
time in as many hours that Ali had asked the question. Talal hissed through
his teeth, but did not interrupt.

"We came into Deraa by the road, openly," Faris recounted, as patient as the
sand. "There was wire, and trenches, some flying machines in the sheds; some
men about, but they took no note of us. We walked on, into Deraa. A Syrian
asked after our villages, and whether the Turks were there; I think he meant
to desert. We left him and walked on again; someone called after us in
Turkish, which we feigned not to understand. Then another man, in a better
uniform, ran after us. He took Aurens by the arm, saying `The Bey wants you.'
He took Aurens away, through the tall fence, into their compound. This was
when I saw him no more. I hung about, but there was no sign of him although I
watched until well after nightfall. The Turks became restless, and looked
evilly at me, so I left before they could take me too."

Talal shook his head. "This is pointless," he said. "Aurens is either dead or
a prisoner, and in neither case can we help him. If the former, it is the will
of Allah; if the latter, we must think of how long he will deceive them, and
where we must go when he does."

"Into the desert, whence we came," Ali said glumly. "The Revolt is finished.
There is no man of us who can do as he has done, for there is no man of us who
has not a feud with another tribe; there is not a one of us who has no tribe
to answer to. There is no one we may trust to whom the English will listen,
much less give gold and guns to. We are finished."