"H. Warner Munn - The Ship from Atlantis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Munn H Warner)

weapons and confronted now by the horror their fathers had known these
warriors of Gwalchmai's grappled with their terrible enemy. Torn limb
from limb, their warm flesh eaten while it still held life, they struck out
while they were able and died where they had slept.

The fierce cry of the Aztlan Valiants arose: "Al-a-la-la! Al-a-Ia-la!" But
it grew weaker and fainter as those who sounded it fell with no time for
death-songs.

By the time Gwalchmai reached the shore it was almost over and he
saw that he could not reach his men. He turned and ran back to the ship.
The only help they could hope for must now be found only in sorcery.
Unnoticed by him as he cut his way through the smallest group for the
second time, the bronze cylinder with his father's message slipped out of
his belt pouch and fell into the sand. He attained the deck again, but they
were close behind.

At the sight of the monsters clambering over the rail and the death
cries of his friends sounding in his ears, his heart failed for an instant
Avoiding the clawed embrace of the first pursuer, he plunged his sword to
the hilt in its thinly armored underbelly. Then, as the overlapping scales
clenched upon it when the attacker doubled up in its agony, he found he
could not withdraw it.

He darted into the cabin, slammed and barred the door against the
ponderous bodies which plunged against it Again betraying an
intelligence approaching that of man, one Gronk picked up an anchor
stone out of the water by its rope and hurled it against the door, smashing
in the stout oak planks.

By this time hordes of the scaly creatures were swarming over the
camp, from which came no more war cries, nor any sound indeed but
those of an obscene gobbling. Struggling to enter, those on the ship
crowded one another to enter the cabin, but Gwalchmai had reached
Merlin's chest and seized a talisman of great power from the little tray.

It writhed in his hand like a living thing as he pronounced the cantrip
which activated it Smoke curled up from his seared palm, but he clung to
it grimly until he had finished the spell. The Gronk picked up the anchor
stone again and felled him with it, but it was a dying reflex action. The
creature dropped dying, decaying as it struck the deck, the flesh falling
away from the skeleton in moments. All over the island the same thing was
happening. The feasters perished in the act. Those hurrying to the feast
never reached it even those who dwelt at the far ends of the island died
without knowing what had struck them down.

Gwalchmai lay unconscious in his blood in the ruined cabin. Skeletons
lay with him and on the deck, but there was nothing left alive to harm
him. He lay there, murmuring incoherently, and when his eyes opened he
looked about without knowledge. By and by he slept