"Roberts, John Maddox - Stormlands 03 - The Poisoned Lands UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberts John Maddox)

NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.
THE POISONED LANDS
Copyright л 1992 by John Maddox Roberts
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
49 West 24th Street
New York, N.Y. 10010
Cover art by Ken Kelly
ISBN: 0-812-50631-6
First edition: February 1992
Printed in the United States of America
0987654321
ONE
The spies lay motionless, belly-down on a crag of rock overlooking endless miles of desolation. Each was covered by a blanket mottled in gray and brown, so that they were all but invisible from just a few yards away. Only the snouts of their telescopes poked from beneath the blankets, each lens shaded by a piece of leather against the chance of casting a reflection. The rising sun was behind them, but these men took no chances. They had taken this position during the hours of darkness and had remained motionless since first light. Soon the heat beneath the blankets would be terrible but exposure meant certain death, and the scene before them was worth a day of discomfort. "This is it in truth!" said one, his voice little more than a whisper, for there was always a chance of a roving sentry passing near. "It can be no other!"
"I am sure of it," said the cooler voice. "But calm yourself. The time for excitement is when we claim our reward."
2 John Maddox Roberts
The sight before them was enthralling only to one who could interpret its significance. In the distance a camp sprawled on the desert floor, close against the raised lip of an ancient crater. Many such craters pocked this vast desolation, but only this one was a center of human activity. Indeed, the desert was nearly void of humanity except for scattered nomads and this one, strange operation.
From the camp, files of men climbed the crater rim and descended into the depression beyond. Those in the returning files trudged under weighty loads, which they deposited somewhere in the camp. Columns of smoke rose from within the crater, but these were not volcanic in origin. Along the rim mounted sentries paced, the morning sun casting reflections from their lance points. Even with telescopes, the distance was too great to discern details of dress or equipage.
All day long the two men lay motionless, their attention sharpening at each new activity below them. The rise on which they lay was not high enough to see within the crater but they had a good view of the camp. When the sun passed zenith they put away the telescopes lest their position be betrayed by a reflection. The heat grew terrible but they endured it, sucking occasionally at their water skins.
When darkness fell, they cast off the blankets and lay gasping gratefully in the relative coolness. Moving stiffly, they rose and began to fold their blankets, packing up their telescopes, water skins and other sparse gear. Before the darkness was complete, one took a reading from a small compass. He closed the compact instrument's cover and returned it to a pocket in his outer robe.
"Look, Baffle," said the other man.
Where before only columns of smoke had been visible, they now saw a ruddy glow and ascending sparks.
"A smelting operation," said Haffie. "there can be no question of it." With his hood thrown back, he was revealed as a lean man with close-cropped black hair and a
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stubble of beard. The other man was of different race, short and stout, his scalp shaven on the left side. The hair on the right side was gathered into a single plait and dyed blue. Haffle picked up his spear and made to leave the crag but the other lingered.
"Ingist, we've no time to waste. Come along, we have to find our beasts before daylight."
"It's hard to believe, isn't it?" Ingist said, staring at the glow as if hypnotized. "WeVe found it, after men have failed all these years."
"Finding it is one thing," Haffle said. "Living to report it and collect our reward from the queen is another, so let's be away."
Reluctantly, Ingist picked up his own spear and trudged after his companion. Except for the short spears, which doubled as walking staffs, the men carried daggers at their belts but no other arms. To all appearances, they were traveling traders like hundreds of others who roamed the village-dotted farmlands along the borders of the southern kingdoms, following the small rivers and skirting the trackless waste of the desert. Popular legend filled the desert with mysteries and marvels, but these two had found little in their many expeditions except rock, sand, heat and thirst. Until this day.
They had followed hints and rumors, interrogated men who claimed to have seen this marvel, offered bribes and had even consulted seers and fortune-tellers to find this site. In the end they had found an injured workman, desperate for money to buy medicine. He claimed that he had worked for a season at the mine, and had not been fooled by the circuitous route he and the other workers had trodden. He had managed to shift his blindfold from time to time, and spot certain landmarks. The crater was not in the deep desert at all, he told them, but rather was located near the cultivated lands at the northern border of Canyon territory.
They had killed the man to prevent his telling others, and
4 John Maddox Roberts
had followed his directions to the crater that was so like the many others, except for this one unique quality. As they trudged toward the place where they had left the rest of their little caravan and their desert-traveling bumpers, their hearts thrilled to the knowledge they now held. They had found the world's greatest treasure, the secret for which their queen would reward them beyond any man's wildest dreams. They had found the steel mine of King Hael.
The heat in the crater was stifling, so that the warriors were hard put to keep their masks of imperturbability from slipping. They did not want to appear weak before the workmen, but this place tested the hardiest. In the heat they had discarded their customary skin clothing and rode in knee-length cloth breeches. Head scarves and light mantles protected them from the fierce sun. If they were lightly clothed, they were heavily armed. Each man had a great bow and a quiver bristling with arrows. Each bore a long sword of steel, and their lance points were likewise of steel. The tips of their arrows and javelins were of cheaper bronze. Their shields were of differing designs, as were the men themselves, for they were not all of a single race. They were united in their mounted way of life, despising inferior people who walked on the earth like animals.
"Three more days," said a long-haired youth to his companion. "Three more days and we can leave this furnace. I cannot tell you how sick I am of soot and smoke and the reek of these sweaty slaves."
"Not to mention the sun and the rationed water," said the other, who was slightly the younger of the two. They shared a close resemblance, both tall young men with copper-colored hair and pale blue eyes. Their high cheekbones distinguished them from the others, and each had an easy, natural grace that set them apart.
"Where will you go when the season's operation breaks up?" asked the elder, kneeing his mount up the concave
THE POISONED LANDS 5
side of the crater, hoping to catch some breeze up on the rim.
"Back to the grasslands and the hills, where else?" said the younger.
"Not I. I am going along with the labor escort. I want to see some of the southern towns before I return home."
"But Father has told us . . ."
"Are we boys that we must obey his every wish?" said the elder. "We are both free warriors and we need no father's permission to go where we will."
"He is more than our father, as if I need to remind you. He is also our king." They paused atop the low ridge, out of the smoke and clamor.
"And as such he has never forbidden free warriors to go where they will in peacetime, as long as they don't take military service with a foreign king without his permission. I just want to travel a little and see some new sights. To tell you the truth, I am almost as weary of grass and livestock as I am of this desert."
The other looked doubtful. "I don't know. He was reluctant just to have us both away from home on this mission. It worries him that he might lose both of us."
His brother smiled wryly. ' 'Kairn, he cherishes the hope that one of us will someday succeed him, but you and I know that is not to be. The council of chiefs will pick someone else. Father is the great spirit-man, the unifier of plain and hill. What are we? Just warriors like any others. We lack the spirit-force that made him like a god to the tribes. I am not prepared to spend my life near home, indulging his fond hopes for my future."
Kairn was silent. He lacked his elder brother's easy self-assertion and the thought of disobeying their father troubled him. The scene below them was busy, but the clamor of the previous weeks had ceased and the sound of sledge, pick and wedge no longer assaulted the ears. The workers were cleaning up the site and the last of the freed metal was being