"Andrew J. Offutt - Cormac 02 - The Tower of Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (Offutt Andrew J)

seamen who named it out of their own experience, it was the Bay of Treachery.
Raven had not ventured far from land even when dodging the Gothic biremes, and at that the water had been
wicked. Cormac now urged what was frighteningly worse.
Clodia was appalled.
She had never been on the sea in her life, but she had heard sailors talk in her fatherтАЩs wine-shop, and seen
how they gripped their drinking jacks when they spoke of Treachery Bay. An she needed further proof that it
was terrible, she had it when bloody-handed pirates, to whom the death grip of battle was something to joy in,
showed trepidation at the thought of braving it. That they gainsaid their captainтАЩs blood brother aloud gave her
courage to cry her opinion.
тАЬMadness!тАЭ she yelled in a voice that cracked in a squak. тАЬMac Art, this folly of yours will murder meтАФmurder
us all! Your men haveтАФтАЭ
Cormac rounded on her with a snarl. The Saxon knife heтАЩd once taken from a man who had no further use for
it glittered in his fist. The other he clenched in her redbrown mass of hair, drawing back her head so that her
white throat was offered to the blade.
тАЬTwice now,тАЭ he said conversationally, тАЬhave ye insisted we be bent on your murder, wench! Now yeтАЩll be
closing your mouth and keeping it so, or this little blade and I will see to it that yeтАЩll have been a seeress who
predicted her own death!тАЭ
He released her. She staggered, tripped and sat down. Her eyes were chestnut-round. Cormac turned to the
men on the benches. Them he addressed with biting scorn.
тАЬYe heard that? A woman who never felt a deck under her feet, and she sounds no worse than ye soft-bellied
cod! WulfhereтАЩs Killers! Ha! Look at him there, ready to vomit for shame! What say ye, Skull-splitter? Shall we
swim the Bay and leave them to snivel at the Romans?тАЭ
тАЬNever,тАЭ Wulfhere assured him. тАЬWe have Raven, and we hold her. I say we cross Treachery Bay, and toss
overboard any who dispute that. Let them do the swimming! Ordlaf?тАЭ
Ordlaf SkelтАЩs son the steersman, who had not joined the outcry, spat over the stern. тАЬIтАЩll succeed, chieftain.
And even should I fail, thereтАЩll be none able to twit me.тАЭ
Wulfhere boomed happy laughter. тАЬIтАЩm served by one man, at least! You hear, codfish? Oh-ho-ho! It will be an
adventure! Who is there that doesnтАЩt fight? But this thing was never done afore, that IтАЩve heard of! Now bend
your backs, or you will be having to fight ere the Romans reach you, and with me! But do make it a speedy
decision. Yon galleys be not standing still!тАЭ
His persuasiveness carried the debate.
Thus it was that the top-heavy Roman warcraft saw Raven vanish whither they dared not follow. Even then,
the pursuers did not guess the resolve that was aboard the pirate craft. The Roman commanders assumed
she had put back to the coast in the hour before dawn, and wasted their day searching bay, cove and
channel for her. By then she was far out on the heaving grey sea, with low-pitched grumbling on her benches,
and prayers to Lord Aegir and the Thunderer.
Clodia was lucky, and over-lucky, not to be sacrificed to the sea people.


CHAPTER THREE: The Bay of Treachery

Grey.
Grey sea under grey sky.
And Raven pressed betwixt the two on a surging horizon while the sky grumbled and now and again bellowed
like a beast jealous of its territory.
The ocean swells grew out of RanтАЩs breathing belly like monsters prowling the grey world. Slowly they
gathered, rising, rolling. To those who watched from the little ship tiny on the sea as a fruit-fly at an imperial
banquet, it was as if they had the leisure of all time to watch them form. Then the swells were fulfilled. They
peaked like wet mountains beneath the keel, the sun striking lights from them like mica in granite. For a
stricken heartbeat the crew of Raven looked down a glassy tilt of forever.