"Paul McAuley - The Book of Confluence 02 - Ancients of Days" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

about rat-catching."
Some of the other thralls laughed and Yama lost the last of his temper; it was easily lost
these days. "Come on," he said. "Come on then, rat-catcher! Show me how well you fight!"
The thrall looked around at his fellows, but none were willing to support him. He said
uneasily, "It's not you I want to fight, dominie."
"You cannot choose who to fight!" Yama asked Tamora to lend him her sword, and
presented it hilt-first to the thrall. "Take this! Take it right now!"
The thrall dropped his stave and spread his empty hands. "Dominie . . ."
From above, Tamora said sharply, "Do as he commands or slink away like the cur you are."
Yama thrust the hilt of the sword at the thrall until he had to take it or have it fall on his feet,
"Take it! Good. Now hold it up. It is not a broom. It is a weapon. You can kill with the point or
with the cutting edge, and if you do not have the taste for blood, you can render your enemy
insensible with a blow to the head with the flat of the blade. However, I do not recommend you
try the last against anyone less skilled than you. The man who wounded me that way lost most of
his fingers when I countered his stroke. Hold it up. Keep the tip of the blade level with your
eyes."
Tamora said, "If you're any kind of man, you must know that the higher the angle the better
the thrust. Obey your master! Show him you're a man!"
The other thralls had broken ranks and backed away, forming a rough circle around Yama
and the gray-maned thrall. They laughed now, and Yama scowled at them and told them what
Sergeant Rhodean had told him so many times.
"Do not mock an armed man unless you wish to fight him." He pointed at the gray-maned
thrall and thumped himself just below the breastbone. "Now thrust at me. Aim here. If you miss
the heart, you might get a lung. Either way you will have killed me. Come on!"
The thrall made a tentative jab that did not carry more than halfway. Yama batted the square
point of the sword aside and leaned forward and shouted in the thrall's face.
"Come on! Kill me, or I will tear out your eyes as a lesson! Do it!"
The thrall yelled and sprang forward, swiping wildly.
 Yama stepped inside the swing and caught the thrall's arm at the elbow, pivoted in a neat
half-turn and threw him from his hip. The thrall let go of the sword when he fell; Yama had it
before it could ring on the marble floor and with a smooth swing laid the edge at the thrall's
throat.
For a moment, he struggled against the urge to complete the motion.
The thrall looked up at him, his yellow slitted eyes glaring behind the agitated orbits of his
six fireflies. In the moment of shocked silence, Yama looked around. None of the other thralls
would meet his gaze. He smiled and reversed the sword and presented it to Tamora.
She sheathed it, jumped down from the pedestal, and helped the thrall to his feet. "Bravely
tried. Better than anything anyone else has done." She looked around at the others. "I don't mind
if you hate us, but I do mind if you can't get angry. Without anger you'll have only fear when it
comes to a fight. We can't teach you how to get angry, but if you can manage it we can teach you
how to direct your anger. Tomorrow we begin again. Now get out of my sight. Go on! Run!"
Pandaras applauded languidly as the thralls dispersed around him, their claws clicking on
marble. He said, "A bold display, master. I had not thought you could play-act so well."
Yama shrugged. Now it was over he felt self-conscious.
His head wound throbbed. He said, "I was not play-acting. I lost my temper."
Tamora said, "Like I said, that's what's needed. You're getting an edge to you, Yama. That's
good. We'll make you into something like one of the Fierce People, eh? The thralls have been
servants for thousands of generations, and we've been treating them like volunteers. We have
been too kind. They take up arms not because they want to, but because they have been told to.
Grah, they will not do anything unless they are told, and then they do what they are told and no