"Michael Moorcock - Corum 1 - The Knight Of The Swords" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moorcock Michael)

And now he could see why so inany of the helmets and weapons were familiar.
They were Vadhagh helmets and Vadhagh weapons.
Corum frowned. Had these been looted from some old abandoned Vadhagh castle? Were they gifts? Or had they been stolen?
The Mabden also bore arms and armour of their own

Book one 27

crude manufacture, obviously copies of Vadhagh workнmanship, as well as a few Nhadragh artefacts. A few had clothes of stolen sammite and linen, but for the urost part they wore wolfskin cloaks, bearskin hoods, sealskin jerkins and breeks, sheepskin jackets, goatskin caps, rabbitskin kilts, pigskin boots, shirts of deerskin or wool. Some had chains of gold, bronze and iron hanging round their necks or wound about their arms or legs, or even woven into their filthy hair.
Now, as Corum watched, they began to pass him. He stified a cough as their smell reached his nose. Many were so drunk they were almost falling out of their chariots. The heavy wheels rumbled and the hooves of the horses plodded on. Corum saw that the waggons did not contain females, but booty. Much of it was Vadhagh treasure, there was no mistaking it.
The evidence was impossible to interpret in any other way. This was a party of warriors - a raiding party or a looting party, Corum could not be sure. But he found it hard to accept that these creatures had lately done battle with Vadhagh warriors and won.
Now the last chariots of the caravan began to pass and Corum saw that a few Mabden walked behind, C-ed to the chariots by ropes attached to their hands. These Mabden bore no weapons and were hardly clothed at all. They were thin, their feet were bare and bleeding, they moaned and cried out from time to time. Often the response of the charioteer to whose chariot they were attached would be to curse or laugh and tug at the ropes to make them stumble.
One did stumble and fall and desperately tried to regain his feet as he was dragged along. Corum was horrified. Why did the Mabden treat their own species in suck a way? Even the Nhadragh, who were counted more cruel than the Vadhagh, had not caused such pain to their Vadhagh prisoners in the old days.
2$ The Knight of the Swords

`These are peculiar brutes, in truth,' nused Corum, half-aloud.
One of the Mabden at the head of the caravan called out loudly and brought his chariot to a halt beside the river. The other chariots and waggons began to stop. Corum saw that they intended to make camp here.
Fascinated, he continued to observe them, stock still oas his horse, hidden by the trees.
The Mabden removed the yokes from the horses and led them to the water. From the waggons they took cooking pots and poles and began to build fires.
By sunset they were eating, though their prisoners, still tied to the chariots, were given nothing.
When they were done with eating, they began to drink again and soon more than half the herd was insensible, sprawled oas the grass and sleeping where they fell. Others were rolling about oas the ground engaged in mock fights, many of which increased in savagery so that knives and axes were drawn and some blood spilled.
The Mabden who had originally called for the caravan to stop, roared at the fighting men and began to stagger among them, a wineskin clutched in one hand, kicking them and plainly ordering them to stop. Two refused to heed him and he drew the huge bronze war-axe from his belt and smashed it down oas the skull of the nearest man, splitting his heluret and his head. A silence came to the camp and Corum, with an effort, made out the words the leader spoke.
`By the Dog! III have no more squabbling of this sort. Why spend your energies oas each other. There is sport to be had yonder!' He pointed with his axe to the prisoners who were now sleeping.
A few of the Mabden laughed and nodded and rose up, moving through the faint light of the evening to where their prisoners lay. They kicked them awake, cut the ropes

Book one 29

attachei to the chariots and forced them towards the main encampment where the warriors who had not succumbed to the wine were arranging themselves in a circle. The prisoners were pushed into the centre of this circle and stood there staring in terror at the warriors.
The leader stepped into the circle and confronted the prisoners.
`When we took you with us from your village I promised you that we Denledhyssi hated only one thing more than we hated Shefanhow. Do you remember what that was?'
One of the prisoasers mumbled, staring at the ground. The Mabden leader moved quickly, pushing the head of his axe under the mans chin and lifting it up.
`Aye, you have learned your lesson weil, friend. Say it again.'
The prisoner's tongue was thick in his mouth. His broken lips moved again and he turned his eyes to the darkening skies and tears fell down his checks and he yelled in a wild, cracked voice:
`Those who lick Shefanhow urine!'
And a great groan shuddered from him and then he screamed.
The Mabden leader smiled, drew back his axe and rammed the haft into the mans stomach so that the scream was cut short and he doubled over in agony.
Corum had never witnessed such cruelty and his frown deepened as he saw the Mabden begin to tie down their prisoners, staking them out oas the ground and bringing brands and knives to their limbs, burning and cutting them so that they did not die but writhed in pain.
The leader laughed as he watched, taking no part in the torture itself.
'Oh, your spirits will remember me as they mingle with the Shefanhow demons in the Pits of the Dog!' he chuckled. 'Oh, they will remember the Earl of the
30 The Knight of the Swords

Denledhyssi, Glandyth-a-Krae, the Doom of the Shefanhow!'
Corum found it difficult to work out what these words meant. `Shefanhow' could be a corruption of the Vadhagh word `Sefano' which roughly meant `fiend'. But why did these Mabden call themselves `Denledhyssi' - a corrupнtion, almost certainly of `Donledyssi' meaning `murderers'? Were they proud that they were killers? And was Shefanhow a term used in general to describe their enemies? And were, as seemed unquestionably the case, their enemies other Mabden?
Corum shook his head in puzzlement. He understood the motives and behaviour of less developed animals better than he understood the Mabden. He found it difficult to retain a clinical interest in their customs, was becoming quickly disturbed by them. He turned his horse into the depths of the forest and rode away.
The only explanation he could find, at present, was that the Mabden species had undergone a process of evolution and devolution more rapid than most. It was possible that these were the mad remnants of the race. If so, then that was why they turned on their own kind, as rabid foxes did.
A greater sense of urgency filled him now and he rode as fast as his horse could gallop, heading for Castle Crachah. Princess Lorim, living in closer proximity to Mabden herds, might be able to give him clearer answers to his questions.

CHAPTER FOUR

The Bane of Beauty:
The Doom of Truth