"Eric Van Lustbader - Sunset Warrior 4 - Beneath an Opal Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lustbader Eric van)

His horse snorts, shaking its head. Gently, the
scarred man strokes its neck below the short
mane with a thin red hand. The stallion's coat is
lusterless, matted with the mingled dust of the
highway, the caked mud of narrow back roads
and the grease of many a hasty meal.

The scarred man pulls at his hat, a floppy felt
affair which, constructed anaesthetically, does
little more than conceal his long and haggard
face. Satisfied at last, he turns and, slouched in
his high and dusty saddle, presses against his
mount with his heels, riding through the gate. He
raises his eyes as he moves, watching the
perspective changing, deriving pleasure

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2 Eric V. Lustbader

from the shifting angles as he studies the endless
bas-reliefs carved into the cinnabar of the dark
western gate, an epic monument to a dichotomy:
the triumph and the cruelty of war.

The scarred man shivers even though he is not
cold. He does not believe in omens yet he thinks
it interesting that he enters Sha'angh'sei through
the western gate, erected as a sinister reminder of
a particularly odious aspect of man's nature. But,
he asks himself, would it really make any
difference if he had made his entry into the city
through the green-onyx southern gate, the
alabaster eastern gate, or the intricate
red-lacquered wood and black iron northern gate?
Then he throws his head back and utters a short
bitter laugh. No. No. Not at all. For at this hour
of sunset they are all stained crimson by the
lowering light.

The scarred man breaks into the populous surf
of the great city and his journey is slowed by the
milling throngs of people as if he is passing
through a moving field of poppies. He feels an
end to long isolation, far from the companionship
of man, a seemingly interminable time with only
his stallion, the stars and the moon as his family.
Yet as he rides into the explicit riot of the city,
his mount walking through the clouds of jostling