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

noticed-against a horse's ribcage and tried to drive the sword through it. He put all his strength into the
thrust, but the armor only dimpled and sprang back into shape. It took several jabs before he was able to
drive his sword through it.

Tough stuff, this, thought Blade. He looked more closely at the belt in his hands. He'd be damned if this
stuff wasn't almost identical to teksin, the ubiquitous material that the people of Tharn had made from the
mani plant. Almost? He couldn't see any difference at all!

Could he be in Tharn?

The thought made his pulse race and his breath come more quickly. He couldn't help it. The idea that
after all the failures he had finally returned to a particular dimension was too exciting.

Then the excitement faded. So far he had nothing to prove that he was in Tharn except a few pieces of
something that looked very much like teksin and a few skeletons of warrior women. That wasn't enough.
There was no reason why the people of some other dimension couldn't have come up with something
identical to teksin. Nor were fighting women unique to Tharn. Until he had more to go on, he would
assume that this was a new world, with a whole set of new dangers.

He turned back to examining the skeletons. They lay scattered every which way, and wind and time had
broken some of them apart. But all the bones were intact, none of them broken or gouged. Some of the
skeletons looked as though the people had simply lain down to sleep or fallen off their horses and never
got up again. To Blade, those bones didn't look like those of people and horses who had died in battle.
What had killed them, then?

Blade knew he could only guess for the moment. Meanwhile he would watch his step and his back even
more carefully. He rummaged through the remains until he found a helmet and a breastplate that more or
less fitted him. Then he tied two or three of the belts together at his waist as an improvised loinguard.

He looked toward the city again. He was armed and armored now. If any of the three peoples still
lurked in the city, he felt he could give a good account of himself. But what then? None of these people
could be the ones who had built the city. That was the relic of an advanced civilization. None of these
people seemed much beyond early Iron Age.

But there was still that damned teksinlike stuff they used!

How did an Iron-Age people get that? Tharn had been a land of advanced if decadent science. These
people-

Blade shrugged. Speculating in advance of facts was never a very good idea. It seemed even less a good
idea in this dimension, which seemed to be throwing four or five mysteries at him all at once.

However, multiple mysteries didn't bother Blade. They just made him more curious and more
determined to satisfy his curiosity. Hitching his sword into position for a quick draw, he strode on toward
the city.

Closer to the city the grass seemed shorter and the ground firmer. Blade plunged along with long,
powerful strides. In another twenty minutes he was more than a mile closer to the city, and stopped
again.