"Douglas Niles - Forgotten Realms - Moonshae 03 - Darkwell" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niles Douglas)

of the two vessels would
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DARK WELL
make a grappling attempt risky at best.
The nearest longship veered slightly from their path, a hundred yards away,
seventy, forty, closing fast. Robyn held her staff over her head, spreading
her hands as far apart as she could. She clenched her hands and strained, as
if trying to bend the stout shaft, silently mouthing a prayer to her deity,
the goddess Earthmother.
An inhuman creaking assailed their ears as the longship suddenly lurched and
twisted in the water. Nails flew through the air as the sleek hull bent
tortuously. Boards snapped, the mast crumpled, and then came a harsh snap,
like the breaking of a bone.
Suddenly the longship buckled, her keel torn in two. Bow and stern rose into
the air while the center of the hull filled with foaming brine. The sail
billowed gently into the water, belying the violence of the ship's demise, and
forty men tumbled into the cold gray sea.
Tristan understood what had happened, though the reality of it stunned him.
Robyn's power, the power of the earth, was keyed to all things wild, all
creatures of nature. The oak trees that had formed the keel of the raider were
such creatures of nature, and the druid had called upon those trees to change
their shape, warping them into something different, something that would not
support the frame of the long-ship.
He heard a thump on the deck beside him and turned to see Robyn, pallid and
motionless, lying on the deck. "What happened?" he cried, kneeling and
cradling her head in his arms. Her eyes fluttered open, and a look of panic
washed across her features.
"I... I fainted! The casting made me weak! WhyтАФhow could it do that?" She
groaned, but struggled to a sitting position. "I think I'm all right now."
The king sprang to his feet as the Defiant cut through the wreck, and Tristan
could see the faces of the northmen who had been dumped so suddenly into the
sea. He saw anger and hatred, but not fear. Even the display of ship-killing
magic was not enough to quail the hearts of these fierce warriors.
DOUGLAS NILES
Suddenly he saw a norihman's eyes widen in terror. The man's mouth opened to
scream, but he disappeared under the water before a sound could emerge.
Another, and another of the raiders vanished with a desperate thrashing. Now
the remaining men began to scream loudly, in mind-numbing panic. The gray sea
turned green with the thrashing of scaly bodies, and red froth exploded from
the torn shapes of sailors.
Tristan saw the other longship heel toward them and then suddenly lurch off
course. Her sides became a seething mass of green scales as reptilian
creatures climbed from the water over the smooth planks, to fall upon the crew
with sharp teeth and wicked, slashing claws.
"Sahuagin!" gasped the king, recognizing the savage fish-men they had battled
upon Callidyrr.
And then it was the Defiants turn to slow in the water as the attackers
grabbed her hull as well. Tristan saw a fishiike head, bristling with spines
above a snarling nightmare of a face, and he stabbed instinctively. The
creature fell back into the water, but two more took its place. Their