"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan - Atlan 03 - Pale Country Pursuit" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

I gave him a nod while I asked Sorlack how much he wanted. When he named the price I saw him staring past me at the girl. There was a menacing silence in the room, except for the crackling of the fire in the fireplace and the deep breathing of the men. I knew it had been a mistake to bring Farnathia with me. I took out money and laid it down beside the ointment package.
"I'm listening," I finally answered my interrogator.
"How long you still staying in the 'Tents'?"
As the girl and I moved toward the door, the men formed a wide circle around us. Not one of them was looking at me. With burning eyes they were staring at Farnathia, who was becoming more worried with each passing second.
"A day or two," I said. "Please let us through."
I headed for the slight gap near the door but the men did not move completely out of my way. Close beside me and slightly behind, I heard a sudden gasp from Farnathia.
"Take your hands off me!"
I shoved the ointment into the pocket of my fur-lined cloak and drew a long dagger from my belt. I stared down the two closest men and growled at them: "Out of the way. Let go of the girl!"
I caught a side movement out of the corner of my eye and I turned. Raising my arm swiftly, I made a slicing thrust and cut. One of the fur-trappers had drawn Farnathia to him and was attempting to jerk loose her headpiece. This one cried out, both of his wrists showing bloody gashes. I pulled Farnathia close to me and sent one of the men yelling to the floor.
"Out of the way or you'll get it!" I shouted, thrusting forward.
The injured hunter failed to draw his knife because I rammed him in the chest with my shoulder, simultaneously shoving the door open with my boot. As we went out a hue and cry went up behind us. I rammed the door shut with my foot and then braced my back against its board face and cross-braces.
Farnathia ran on a few steps but then came back, pleading excitedly. "Let's get home! Fratulon will help us!"
I shook my head obstinately while keeping an eye on the nearby sled dogs, who were becoming restless. I gave Farnathia the package of ointment. "Run across and get Fratulon-tell him what's happened! Hurry! I'll hold them back!"
As she ran away, as her boot heels crunched through the snow and the dogs began to howl, a fragment of memory leapt into my mind. There was a similar scene inside a palace-like building that seemed to glitter in crystalline splendour. Chased by a gang of men, I finally concealed myself behind one of the many doors and great portals of the palace. Names which had no meaning here flashed before me like so many phantoms...Gonozal the 7th...Arkon... the Great Methane War...
The door and my backbone were both shaken by furious blows. My hand gripped the hilt of my long-bladed weapon. I knew we had to get out of here as soon as possible. This beautiful girl was a constant temptation to the men in this territory.
I heard Sorlack bellowing. "Get away from that door, greenhorn!"
"No way!" I shouted back. "The first one out is a deadman!"
"We're not going to hurt you!" yelled someone else.
The dogs raised up from the snow and came closer. Outside the courtyard wall in the village clearing I heard footsteps... noises, voices. Fratulon? I slowly got away from the door. Orienting myself to my surroundings, I made a jump. Seconds later I held a bundle of sharply honed harpoons in my hands. Their leather straps and synthetic lead-lines slipped through the snow.
"You molested the girl!" I shouted. "I'm warning you!"
With a loudly complaining sound the door was carefully opened. Sorlack stuck out his swarthy head and looked at me. "You young fool!" he snapped at me. "We were just fooling around-and you almost severed this trapper's wrists in here!"
"This isn't fooling around!" I threatened him. I stood there with my legs braced apart and my throwing arm high, aiming a harpoon.
My breath made a cloud of vapour around my head. The needle point of the hunting weapon was aimed straight at Sorlack. There were footsteps behind me and I heard the stocky little man breathing hard as he dashed into the courtyard. As ever, he moved like a lean-muscled athlete, warrior-trained from head to toe. Few men knew that those apparent bulges of fat on him were knots of powerful muscle.
He came to a stop behind me and yelled out: "What's going on here? I'll permit no blood to be spilled!"
Sorlack threw the door wide open and spoke in some confusion. "Sir, blood has been spilled! Your son here has wounded a man."
I did not move while the harpoon point still aimed at Sorlack, not wavering a fraction of an inch. "They molested Farnathia, Fratulon."
Fratulon's voice was as hard and sharp as an icicle. "Is that true, Sorlack?"
Other shadowy figures loomed behind the massive trader as the sun lowered in a glowing red sky behind the snow clouds.
"It was a joke," he said. "You know how we are-hard maybe, but rough and hearty. The boys here were just fooling around."
As Fratulon moved cautiously around me, his full-length cloak of fur revealed a flash of his breast armour which shone like burnished brass. In some language that was unknown to me he hissed something at the dogs. The animals drew their tails between their legs and slinked away, whimpering into a far corner. Now the door was fully open and the other men pressed out past the trader. A cutting wind came up from the West.
Fratulon had his hand on the hilt of Skarg as he announced loudly: "Then it was all a misunderstanding. The girl is not accustomed to your crude ways. She was scared to death. This young man has been trained to be a swift and deadly fighter and he defended the girl because he's in love with her. And you have carried your hospitality a bit too far. Do you wish satisfaction, gentlemen?"
Sorlack called out: "No, not me. Far as I'm concerned, nothing's happened. But this hunter here has a couple of sliced wrists."
Sawbones, who was an outstanding physician, gave me a sign to stay back and then approached the men. He examined the man's cuts and shook his head, speaking in a tone of authority. "Atlan! Go home and help Ice Claw and Farnathia. I'll take care of these wounds. On this planet there is too much fighting and dying-we've all got to keep our heads about us."
"Truly spoken," rumbled Sorlack. "You said a mouthful! But come inside-I don't want to give warmth to this storm."
Fratulon came over to me, placing a hand on my shoulder to calm me down. No words were needed. I laid down the harpoon and went out. I crossed the outer clearing to our rented 'white tent' of a house and helped prepare our equipment and supplies for our imminent departure. The task was like the country, hard, burdensome, unrelenting-and just a bit too big for the four of us.
As I discussed it with Ice Claw, the weirdly transparent Chretkor expressed his own feelings. "I know it will be the death of me. I'll freeze and turn into ice.
Then I'll shatter like an icicle. But all the same, I'm coming with you!"







2/ GHOSTS IN THE SNOW

We had been 6 hours under way.
Fratulon sat in the driver's seat and guided the clattering snow car through terrain where the route was perceived more by instinct than by sight. I hunched next to Sawbones and observed the faint trail that a trap-setter must have made. The trembling compass needle pointed generally in the direction we were following.
"The fear of death knows no luxury!" grumbled Fratulon. He turned the steering wheel which the former owner had bound with a wrapping of cord. "That's something you'll learn one day, my lad."
"I'm freezing!" complained Ice Claw.