"Julian May - The Golden Torc" - читать интересную книгу автора (May Julian)

Lowlife humanity in an attack against FiniahтАФprovided that
the fighting took place before the start of the Grand Combat Truce beginning at dawn on October
first. The expedition would
consist of Fitharn, Madame Guderian, Chief Burke, a dynamic-field
engineer named Martha, a former gravomag repair tech-nician
named Stefanko, and three members of Group Green.
Claude would guide them to the spot. Richard (over his protests)
would pilot a flyer if one could be made operational. Felice
insisted she would be useful fending off wild beasts with her
special talent, as well as doing chores such as hunting for food.
(She had to go; around the neck of Lugonn's skeleton was a
golden torc.)
Fitharn proposed that the expedition receive official sanction
from the Firvulag monarch, Yeochee IV. Before leaving the tree, Madame gave secret orders to a
Lowlife metalsmith, Khalid
Khan, to take a group of men to a site designated by Claude,
where iron ore might easily be found. They were to smelt as
much of the "blood-metal" as possible and bring it back to the
principal Lowlife settlement of Hidden Springs as soon as the
Tanu search parties withdrew. The iron was to be kept a secret
from the Firvulag, since their loyalty was strongly tinged with
expedience, and no Lowlife knew how long the shaky alliance
might last.
Amerie would go to Hidden Springs and reside in Madame's
own house. There her arm could heal and she could minister
to the outlaw humans, who had lived for years with neither a
physician nor a priest. Meanwhile, messengers would go to
other Lowlife settlements thinly scattered about Europe, at- tempting to attract volunteers for
the Finiah attackтАФnow ten- tatively scheduled for the last week in September.
In the Firvulag stronghold of High Vrazel, the little expe-dition
met with a skeptical King Yeochee, who warned that
the regions east of the Black Forest were full of Howlers,
deformed mutant Firvulag only nominally under his authority.
He presented Madame with a royal order commanding the
cooperation of Sugoll, reputed to rule the Howlers in the regions
around the Danube headwaters.
On the fifth day after leaving High Vrazel, in the Vosges
Mountains, the expedition arrived at the RhineтАФand encoun-tered
disaster in the shape of a pig the size of an ox. This.creature attacked from ambush, killing
Stefanko and badly
wounding Chief Burke. Fitharn urged that they turn back; but
the humans feared that if they delayed, the Firvulag might seek
out the Ship's Grave themselves. Frail Martha, who had been


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forced to give birth to four children in quick succession as a
Tanu slave, began to hemorrhage. Nevertheless, she was firm