"Andre Norton - Oak, Yew, Ash & Rowan 1 - To The King A Daughter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

Someone shouted from the waterside. The men fell into order, steel out. As driven as their prey might be,
no man would go defenseless to this meeting.

Their quarry might not be too exhausted to defend themselves.

The Yew soldiers passed by the deep gouge left by the prow of a boat to concentrate on something else,
a limp body that lay face down, arms rising and falling with the swish of the current. An arrow jutted tall
and deadly from between its shoulders. No arrow of theirs, they knew by the blue bandings of its
fletching. Ash color. As one, they drew toward each other, eyes alert to any change in their surroundings.
At least the wind had dropped so that the shrubs and tree branches had ceased their wild dance. The
man who reached the body first hooked hands in the sword belt and with an effort, drew the corpse fully
ashore. He did not turn it over at once, being far more interested in the arrow.

"Well?" demanded the officer. "Which other of the squads has outrun us?"

"None of ours, m'lord." The tracker flicked the stiff shaft of the arrow with his finger. 'This fellow was
unlucky. He missed the big fight." The man thought for a moment. "That, or elseтАж"

"Do you know him?" Lord Lackel leaned closer now.

"Can't tell, m'lord."

It took the tracker and one of the soldiers to roll the body over and expose the muddied face to the light.

"Not known to me, m'lord. Teh. He was just a younker. But look you here." He used an end of
water-heavy cloth to wipe away the concealing mud from a buckle that supported a quiver sling. The
buckle bore a distinctive leaf inscribed upon it. "Now that there we has seen before."

"Ash!" Lackel pulled at his dripping beard. "But then, why dead from a comrade's hand?"

The tracker shrugged. 'True, this be Ashen-branded. I understand it not. Maybe someone has stole Ash
arrows, used 'em to throw us off." He and his fellow had ceased to keep a hold on the body, and now
something hidden beneath the current seized upon the corpse with force enough to put both men into a
panic and send them clawing their way back up the bank.

"Look you!" one of the other men called sharply. The dusk was growing thicker by the moment, but a
shroud of mist parted and they could all see at a distance the boat, caught in a tangle of drifting
vegetation. A body slid from the boat, into the water.

Lackel did not move toward this at once, for his thoughts were too bemused. An

Ash arrow for an Ash kill! It was not just the personal guards of the one he served that had been a part
of the hunt, but those of the woman's own Family as well. Rough justice indeed, unstoppable, brought
even to this backwater. Brave

Hasard, braver than any other he had ever known. He touched the edge of his helm as if he would salute
an overlord, or at least a worthy enemy. Now he was chilled by more than the wind. She who had
dispatched him on this wild mission was said to have her own methods of spying. And it was also
whispered that some who served her did not wear human aspect. But such thoughts were best kept to