"Sterling E. Lanier - Hieros 01 - Hiero's Journey" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lanier Sterling E)

animal on the ground. Where?
FollowтАФsafetyтАФdanger firstтАФslowтАФfollow, came the answer as Gorm dropped to all
fours and scuttled away from the clearing. Without even being urged, Klootz
swung in his wake, maintaining a pace which kept him about fifteen feet to the
rear. The fact that the morse trusted the young bear was a major factor in
Hiero's own decision to do so. The morse stock was bread for alertness as well
as strength and skill, and their mental watchdog capabilities were considered
quite as important as their physical qualities.
They went south, back the way Klootz had come, and soon recrossed the road.
Here, the bear did something which made Hiero blink. Signaling them to stop,
Gorm recrossed the dirt track and then dragged himself back by his front legs,
his fat rear end obliterating Klootz's broad tracks! Only the passage of the
buffer herd and a smeared place now showed on the dust of the road.
Follow (Gorm)тАФwalk hard ground {quietly)тАФnot leave mark, came the thought.
Following it, there came one more: Not speakтАФwatch (me) onlyтАФothers listen
(for)тАФspeakтАФ danger.
Hiero nodded to himself. The bear was indeed ciever, very clever. There must
be a nest of Leemutes or some center or other nearby. If mind speech was used,
it might well be picked up and some terror or other be sent on their tracks.
He remembered that flash of shuddersome, gelid hatred the bear had shown him,
and a tingle ran down his spine.
For some time, Gorm moved at a steady pace which was no more than a good walk
for the~ bull morse. The warrior-priest kept a keen watch. A veteran woodsman,
he noted that he and his mount were being led over underlying granite spines
of firm ground and also that the woods were very quiet. The great forest of
Kanda, where undisturbed, was full of life, in the trees, on the ground, and
even in the air. Now the land was silent. No squirrels chattered at the
travelers, birds were few and shy, and not a trace of the larger creatures,
such as
THE SIGN OF THE FISHHOOK 15
deer, was to be seen. In the windless hush of the late summer afternoon, the
almost noiseless progress of the three yet sounded very loud in Hiero's ears.
A sense of oppression was in his mind, almost of pressure from outside, as if
the atmosphere itself had somehow grown denser.
Hiero crossed himself. This strange silence and spiritual oppression were not
normal and could only come from the forces of darkness, from the Unclean, or
some lair of theirs.
Abruptly, Gorm stopped. Through some signal that even his owner could not
catch, the giant morse was given an order. Instantly, he too stopped and just
as instantly lay down, crouching beside a great pile of deadfalls. Klootz
weighed just a trifle under a ton, but he sank to his knees with the grace of
a dancer and without a sound. Ten feet in front of the morse's moist and
pendulous nose, the bear crouched, peering around a bush. On the neck of the
morse, Hiero too lay stretched out, peering forward and trying to see what had
alarmed their guide so.
All three were looking down into a broad, shallow hollow in the land, thinly
planted with seedling alders and low brush. As they watched, from the tall
forest on the other side of the dip and well to their right, a column of a
dozen or so figures emerged.
Hiero had thought he was familiar with many types of Lee-mute, the Man-rats