"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 32 - Pirates of Gohar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

leading pirate ship seemed to rush toward him at the speed of an express train. No arrows came from her
decks, and Blade realized now that the pirates had no archers. Suddenly the platform along the near side
of the ship was filled with pirates. Some carried long spears with barbed crosspieces. Others swung
grappling hooks around their heads on lengths of rope, then let fly.
Blade ducked as one hook flew straight toward him, then heard a cry from behind. The hook was
caught in a sailor's shoulder. As the man was dragged forward, Blade slashed down with his sword,
cutting the rope. Then he picked out the pirate hauling in on the rope, snatched one of his spears from the
deck, and threw. The pirate stiffened, looked down at the spear jutting from his thigh, then gripped it with
both hands and pulled it out. Blade saw tears running from his wide dark eyes as the blood poured from
the wound, but he stayed on his feet. The spear went overboard, then Blade was staring, as the pirate
raised his left hand in an obscene gesture.
It wasn't the gesture that made Blade stare. It was the hand making it. It was broad and thick, with
the usual four stubby fingers and a thumb. It also had webbing between the fingers and thumb, and
instead of five nails it had five hooked, needle-pointed claws. Fingers, thumb, and hand were all covered
with fine rust-red scales, and Blade saw that those scales stretched all the way up the arm and on to
cover the whole body. Pirates were sometimes a "people apart," but not often this much! The pirates of
Gohar weren't even completely human.
Still, anyone who could pull that spear out of his thigh and stay on his feet afterward was a formidable
opponent. Blade picked up his second spear and raised it for a throw. Then everything seemed to
happen at once. The pirate ship swept alongside, with a terrible grinding and cracking of timbers. Part of
the platform buckled and disintegrated, with a sound like a wooden box being smashed with an ax.
Several pirates fell between the two ships as the platform gave way under them. Blade heard their
screams even over the explosion of war cries and curses as the pirates swarmed over the railing onto the
merchant ship's deck.
Blade saw a pirate coming at him with an ax, and threw his second spear almost by reflex. At close
range it went completely through the pirate's torso and pinned him to the railing. After that, Blade had to
avoid the rush of several more pirates. He drew his sword with one hand, raised the club with the other,
and settled down to what he knew would be a long and not necessarily successful fight.
One pirate thrust a spear at him and he smashed the club down on the pirate's hand. The pirate
hardly blinked, but his thrust went wide and Blade managed to turn and meet another attacker with an ax.
Blade slashed sideways with his sword, chopping halfway through the ax handle and completely through
one hand holding it. The pirate screamed hoarsely, held onto the ax with his remaining hand, and swung
at Blade again. It was a wild swing and the pirate lost his balance without touching Blade. He went down
and Blade's sword slashed across the back of his neck. Even one of the indestructible pirates of Gohar
couldn't keep fighting with his head nearly hacked free of his shoulders.
By now the deck around Blade was as slippery as ice with the blood of both sailors and pirates. He
shifted position in search of better footing, beating off several half-hearted attacks as he did. Apparently
enough pirates had seen him fighting to look for easier prey elsewhere. Blade found himself falling back
into a ragged line with his surviving shipmates. Now he had friends on either side, and time to look
around. He put a spear through a pirate trying to get around the end of the line, then looked to the right
and left.
The pirates outnumbered the crew of the merchant ship better than two to one, and they were brave,
determined, and tough fighters. On the other hand, the sailors were just as determined, and they had their
body armor and their archers.
Blade saw that one archer was sprawled on the aftercastle, his face a bloody mask, but the other
was still shooting as fast as he could find targets. A good many of the pirates were now attacking with
bleeding wounds or even arrows sticking out of their arms and legs.
The second pirate ship had grappled one of the smaller merchantmen. From what little Blade could
make out, the pirates were winning by sheer weight of numbers. The black Goharan galley was
approaching. The last pirate ship was just visible, standing off beyond the one alongside Blade's ship.