"03 - The Sailor On The Sea of Fate" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moorcock Michael)

Elric waited at least an hour, expecting the crew of the
ship to disembark. They could have no other reason for
entering this treacherous bay. But a silence had descended,
as if the whole ship slept.

Cautiously Elric emerged from behind the rock and
walked down to the edge of the sea. Now he could see the
ship a little more clearly. Red sunlight was behind it, thin
and watery, diffused by the mist. It was a good-sized ship
and fashioned throughout of the same dark wood. Its
design was baroque and unfamiliar, with high decks fore
and aft and no evidence of rowing ports. This was unusual
in a ship either of Melnibonean or Young Kingdoms design
and it tended to prove his theory that he had stumbled
upon a civilization for some reason cut off from the rest of
the world, just as Elwher and the Unmapped Kingdoms
were cut off by the vast stretches of the Sighing Desert and
the Weeping Waste. He saw no movement aboard, heard
none of the sounds one might usually expect to hear on a
sea-going ship, even if the larger part of the crew was
resting. The mist eddied and more of the red light poured
through to illuminate the vessel, revealing the large wheels
on both the foredeck and the reardeck, the slender mast
with its furled sail, the complicated geometrical carvings of
its rails and its figurehead, the great, curving prow which
gave the ship its main impression of power and strength

and made Elric think it must be a warship rather than a
trading vessel. But who was there to fight in such waters as
these?

He cast aside his weariness and cupped his hands about
his mouth, calling out:

'Hail, the ship!'

The answering silence seemed to him to take on a
peculiar hesitancy as if those on board heard him and
wondered if they should answer.

'Hail, the ship!'

Then a figure appeared on the port rail and, leaning
over, looked casually towards him. The figure had on
armour as dark and as strange as the design of his ship; he
had a helmet obscuring most of his face and the main
feature that Elric could distinguish was a thick, golden
beard and sharp, blue eyes.