"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 19 - Looters of Tharn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

Blade had left the screens on when he fell asleep, and the first golden blaze of the sun creeping over the
horizon woke him. A drink of water cleared his head, and he awoke the sleeping Krimon. The neuter
awoke very slowly, with many mutterings and yelps of pain as aching muscles complained.

Blade was cheerfully unsympathetic. "Come on, my friend. We have another long day ahead of us.
Breakfast first, and while we eat you will tell me of the Looters. Then we fly west until we come to the
new homes of the people."

Krimon looked uneasy at the last idea. "That-it will spread fear among the farms and villages, Mazda.
They will not know that it is Mazda in the machine. They will see only the Looter war machine and fear it.
Is that the way you wish to come again to Tharn?"

"I was planning to fly directly to my son's home if the machine will carry us that far. How far is that?"
"At least five days on a fast horse."

That worked out to at least two hundred and fifty miles. "Krimon, that is much too far to walk if we want
to get there soon. But I will listen to what you say of the Looters, and say nothing. If when you are
through I am satisfied that I should indeed not come to Tharn in the Looter machine, we will get out and
start walking. But I am very stubborn, as you have no doubt heard."

"Indeed, it is always said of Mazda that he had a will harder than the hardest jewels. Very well, I will tell
you what we know of the Looters."

Urcit had been the last city of Tharn, the one where everyone had retreated by the time Blade arrived.
But it was not always the only one. Scattered across the vast plain stretching half a year's ride toward the
east were a score or more of other cities.

But even with the power, the magveils that controlled the weather and let the mani grow could not be
spread over more than a tiny fraction of the great plain. Urcit was the fairest of all the cities of Tharn, and
the soil around it the most fertile. There was plenty of room and plenty of mani there for the dwindling
remnants of a once-proud people. So they retreated to Urcit and the other cities drifted off into the
realms of legend. Even Sutha, the wise First Neuter who had been Blade's principal ally, had not
considered them important enough to mention.

But the legends survived. Now they drew explorers eastward across the plain, seeking out the substance
of the legends. Two years ago the first explorers of the people reached the distant cities. But at almost
the same time, so did the Looters.

Who were the Looters, and where did they come from? They seemed to come from nowhere and to go
back there when they had finished their deadly work. One woman said she had seen their war machines
appear out of thin air, with a terrible sound and a blast of air that knocked her down. But she went mad
afterwards. Did Mazda think she spoke the truth?

Blade couldn't say for certain. But he could wonder. Teleportation? Possibly. Or possibly-possibly even
interdimensional travel. Had the Looters discovered it on their own?

There was no evidence at all that the Looters were even living creatures. No one in Tharn had ever seen
anything except the terrible machines.