"Joel Rosenberg - Omnibus 03 - To Home and Ehvenor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rosenberg Joel C)

"Leave the horses?" she asked, sliding out of the saddle as she did.

"Sure." I uncinched the saddle and set it on the spread-out horse blanket, slipped the bridle, and tied the
horse to a tree, just the rope and hackamore to hold him there. Jason did the same.

Tennetty just slipped the bridle and dropped the reins. "Stay," she said. I guess that if her horse couldn't
stay ground-hitched, she was willing for it to be her problem.

I slipped into my shooting gloves and leathersтАФI'll cut my fingers and scrape my arm when it's for real,
but not when it's practice, thank you very muchтАФthen strung my bow, a fine Therranji composite that
had cost me more than I like to think about. I'd have to show this to Lou; I doubted even he could have
improved on it. Nicely, elegantly recurved, it was made from three pieces of almost black wood, a long
strip of reddened horn sinew-bound to its belly, the whole thing covered with a smooth lacquer. The grip
was soft, thick leather, gradually molding itself to my fingers with each use. About a fifty-pound
pullтАФwhich is plenty, really.

"I've always seen you favor a crossbow," Jason said, stringing his own longbow. He slung his quiver
over his head, then hitched at his swordbelt. He thought about it for a moment, then unhooked the
swordbelt, leaving it around the pommel of his saddle.

I nodded. "Usually do," I said. "Hey, Jason?"

"Yes?"

"What would you say," I said, quietly, "if I told you that there's six Holtish rebels hiding behind those
trees over there and that they're about to jump us?"

He started to edge toward his horse.
 Tennetty snickered. "What you should say is, 'I'm sorry, Holtish rebels, let me drop my pants and bend
over for you, so you can stick my sword up my backside,' that's what you should say." She jerked a
thumb toward his horse. "Wear the sword."

He buckled the sword on with good grace. I've known people who take direction worse than Jason.
Lots of them. I've seen one of them in a mirror, every now and then.

I fitted a practice arrow to the bowstringтАФI don't waste killing broadheads on trees.

Now, I like crossbows. You can fire them with one hand, from the saddle, or from a prone position,
three things that you can't do with a longbow. You can do two out of those three things with a short bow,
but you give up range and striking power. Not a good compromise. A longbow has greater range than
any crossbow without a good winding gear, and a much greater rate of fire.

The only trouble is that it takes a lot of practice to get good at it, and more practice to stay good at it.

Across the meadow, maybe, twenty yards away, an oily crow sat on a limb, considering the silly humans
below.

Well, let's see if I can still do zen archery.The trouble with being a stranger in a strange land is that you
have to be your own zen master. I brought the bow up, keeping my form perfect, not aiming with my