"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 17 - The Mountains of Brega" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

offering few chances for mistakes.
Eventually both the capacities of the men and the lusts of the women were exhausted. Two of the
women took axes and went off into the woods. A few minutes later they came back with stout poles,
made from cut down and trimmed saplings. The exhausted men were unbound, then swiftly slung from
the poles and their wrists and ankles tied again. Blade saw the men wince as the tightly bound cords cut
into their flesh. After a few hours of this, they would be beyond either walking or defending themselves. If
he wanted to rescue them, it would be a one-man show.
But did he want to rescue them? That they had been obscenely abused by the huntresses didn't
change the fact that the wild men were hardly above the level of apes. If there was any civilization in this
dimensionтАФand Blade was beginning to wonder about thatтАФit probably belonged to the huntresses. But
they might be hard to approach. Certainly they would not welcome the release of their captives.
But, damn it, he was not going to simply sit here while the women carted those poor bastards off into
the woods! At the very least, he was going to trail them until they made camp for the night. Then he could
see what to do about the wild men, and only after that try to approach the women.
Blade looked up. The light coming through the gaps in the forest cover overhead was getting
unmistakably dimmer and showing a reddish tinge. The day was moving on toward evening, and the
women would be making camp soon. And they would not be marching very far before they made camp
either, not carrying the wild men. They must weigh well over two hundred pounds apiece.
Blade settled down to wait as comfortably as he could. The insects were gone, but with the fading
daylight it was getting chilly under the trees. The needles seemed to prick more than before, and the
resins of the tree stuck to his bare skin like glue.
He did not have to wait very long, however. After binding the two men to the carrying poles, the
women retrieved their clothing and gear. Then the leader pointed at four of her band. They paired off and
each pair hoisted one of the carrying poles on their shoulders. Blade heard the wild men gasp at the strain
put on their wrists and ankles. Then the leader took her position at the head of the line and brandished
her spear aloft. Slowly the huntresses marched off into the now fast-darkening forest.
Blade continued to cling to the branch for a good ten minutes more, until all sound of the marching
women had faded away in the forest. Then he dropped lightly down to the ground, picked out their trail
in the leaves and needles, and set off after them.


Chapter 4
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Blade could easily have trailed the women, even if they had been moving fast or trying to conceal their
tracks. His survival training had been the best thatEngland could offer-and his survival experience was
even better, the result of sixteen trips into Dimension X.
But, as he had expected, the women moved slowly, encumbered by their prisoners and their
wounded comrade. And they left a trail as visible as an elephant's. Apparently it had never occurred to
the lithe huntresses that anything in the forest could turn the tables on them, make them the hunted.
Probably they were right, in spite of that surprising display of craft and speed by the scarred wild man
who had escaped. But Blade was not one of the wild men. The women were in for a considerable
surprise when he slipped into their camp.
The women did not make camp until it was deep twilight, with the sky turning purple overhead and
the stars already coming out. Apparently they had some sort of lampsтАФBlade could see yellow firefly
glows through the trees as he lay under a bush, watching and waiting. Then the ruddy light of a large
campfire spread through the trees. Blade heard cheerful voices, the clatter of weapons and cooking gear,
and occasional dull chopping noises. It sounded as though they were cutting wood to keep the fire going
through the night.
Gradually the noises died away, except for the crackling of the fire and a faint sizzling sound that
Blade could not identify. Probably the women had settled down to their evening meal. Blade decided to