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

drown themselves or be shot by archers. Many of the rest tried to surrender, and about twenty
succeeded.
By the time Blade learned this, the pirate chief he'd stunned had recovered consciousness and would
have been sitting up if he hadn't been bound hand and foot. Now that he could get a close look at one of
the pirates, Blade realized that they were both more and less human than he'd realized. In addition to the
red-scaled skin and the webbed clawed hands and feet, they had no hair and oversized, slightly pointed
ears. On the other hand, they had basically human proportionsтАФBlade had seen plenty of men with
equally massive torsos and short thick legs. The faces were definitely human, except for oddly thin lips
and broad noses with nostrils like slits. The genitals were entirely human, and there were no spines or
gills.
At this point in Blade's examination, the pirate's wide dark eyes not only opened but focused on the
Englishman standing over him.
"You did meтАФno goodтАФsaving me," the pirate chief said. He spoke Goharan, but so softly and with
such an accent that Blade could understand him only with difficulty. Fortunately the pirate also spoke
very slowly.
"I don't kill brave fighting men when they're no danger to me," said Blade.
"You didn't, butтАФtheIslandofShells тАФwill." Apparently he noticed Blade's blank expression, since he
went on at once. "IslandтАФthe Goharans send us there to diveтАФand die."
"You can escape from any prison, but not from being dead."
"Not escape fromтАФdishonor."
Blade didn't laugh. He didn't want to hurt the pirate chief's already battered feelings, and in any case
he'd never found anything to laugh at in the notion of "honor." Some of the things people called honor
were fairly silly, and so were many of the things they'd do to protect it. Still, there were things Blade
himself would die rather than do or let be done, and even those who sneered loudest at "honor" probably
also had their limits.
Blade nodded. "Perhaps. But among my people it takes more than merely being captured to lose
honor. It's dishonor to become a faithful servant of your captors, but I don't see you doing that."
The pirate chief managed a feeble smile, showing yellowish, ridged triangular teeth. Then he looked
Blade up and down. "YourтАФpeople? YouтАФnot of Gohar?"
"No, IтАФ"
"Ehhhh." It was something between a sigh and a groan. "ThenтАФguard yourself. The men of
GoharтАФif you are not of themтАФyou may come to theIsland yourself. IтАФ" The chief broke off suddenly
and closed his eyes, pretending to be unconscious. Blade had already heard the footsteps approaching
behind him, and was turning.
It was the ship's captain. He'd taken off his helmet, but he still wore his mail shirt, now spattered with
blood. A crude bandage was tied across his right cheek. He laughed and slapped Blade on the shoulder.
"Sorry I didn't get to you before this. You've done wellтАФbefore today I wouldn't have said any man
could do what you've done. You must have been telling the truth about not wanting to kill my men."
"I was telling the truth about the rest, CaptainтАФ"
"Nemyet's enough of a name for anyone who's done me good service. And you?"
"Blade ofEngland ."
"Well, Blade, if you are from the future, I don't see any reason why we shouldn't tell you about
ourselves. What do the English know about Gohar and the Bloodskins?"
At this point a sailor came up to help Nemyet take off his armor. This gave Blade a few minutes to
make up a plausible version of Gohar. He didn't need any longer. Lord Leighton had once paid him a
somewhat backhanded compliment by saying: "You know, Richard. When you retire from the Project
you could make a fortune in advertising or as public relations man for some politician." (In Lord
Leighton's vocabulary, "politician" was virtually a four-letter word.) "You can tell bigger and better lies in
less time with a straighter face than any three other men I've ever known put together."
"It's all a matter of practice, sir," Blade replied, with a bland smile. This was not only tactful, but true.