"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 25 - Torian Pearls." - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

bearing to the right as he walked. That should bring him to some point along those hills, and after that ....

He'd gone barely half a mile when he stopped abruptly, to stare down at the grass in front of him. A
wide trail was beaten down there, a trail a hundred yards across where the grass lay crushed flat under
the prints of human feet and the hooves of animals. In many places the earth lay in parallel brown
furrows, gouged up by the wheels of heavy carts or wagons. The trail came out of the rain to Blade's
right and vanished in the misty twilight.

The grass was still green, without a trace of yellowing. Whoever had passed by here was only a few
hours away. Blade knelt to examine the furrows. They were sunk deep into the earth, as if the wagons
had been heavily laden. Along the furrows lay half-dissolved piles of purplish-brown dung and occasional
bits of fresh reddish-brown meat. Blade picked up one that had a long strip of leathery gray hide still
attached.

He was turning the hide over and over in his hands when he heard a human voice shout out a wordless
cry. Three other voices echoed it. He whirled, to see four armed men trotting toward him on creatures
that looked like slimmed down oxen.

Blade thrust the butt of his thorn branch into the mud and stood up, facing the oncoming riders with his
hands at his sides. This was as good a time as any to meet the people of this Dimension.

Chapter 5

As they saw Blade waiting for them, the riders slowed to a walk. They spread out into a crescent with
the points toward Blade and came on as if they had all the time in the world. Three of them weren't even
looking at Blade.

Blade looked at all of them as they approached. All four wore kiltlike garments slit up the side, shapeless
calf-length boots, and not a stitch above the waist except two or three necklaces apiece. Their heads
were shaved except for a scalp lock running from front to back, and bone earrings dangled from their
rather large ears. Their eyes were wide, dark, and totally expressionless; their skins were a dirt-smeared
reddish-brown.

They rode without stirrups, sitting on leather pads tied across the backs of their mounts with rope. Each
man had a shortsword slung at his belt and a longsword, a bow, and a quiver of arrows tied on one side
of his mount. On the other side hung leather pouches and water bottles.

The animals' horns curved forward, and each horn divided into two sharp points at the ends. All four
points were painted red and one of the animals had a diamond-shaped patch shaved on its forehead.
Otherwise they looked very oxlike-broad, thick bodies covered with grayish hair and supported by four
heavy splayed-out limbs. They looked built for strength and endurance, not speed.

The four men reined their mounts to a stop when the nearest one was about ten yards from Blade. None
of them dismounted. One of them picked up his bow, nocked an arrow to it, and held it with the arrow's
point toward Blade. Two others shifted in their saddles so that between them they could look all around
the horizon.

It was a display of military skill that impressed Blade. These people didn't look hostile, but they were
obviously as suspicious of him as he would have been in their place. So they would be efficiently on their
guard until they could be sure that he was harmless and alone.