"Russell, Sean - Initiate Brother 2 - Gatherer Of Clouds" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russell Sean)

HillsЧin company with his father then, when the old man still had
strength to ride. Much had changed, more than he ever expected.

There were bandits in the hills now. Holdings had seen

their gates battered down in the night and only armed parties would
chance the roads.

The lord stopped again, listening as Shuyun had taught when they
traveled in the desert. Armor bit into Koma-waraТs shoulder blade
where the leather shirt had worn through, his left hand cramped
again, his boots oozed when he walked, and his horse favored her
right forefoot. If that was not enough, he was also hopelessly
separated from his companions and had only the vaguest notion of
where he was. A soft drizzle fell, slowly soaking into the lacings of
his light armor. He listened.

Snow, heavy with rain, slipped from a tree branch and fell in a
sodden pile at the lordТs feet, causing his horse to shy. That,
Komawara realized, was a true indication of the turmoil of his
spiritЧhis mare had sensed it, had caught it in fact. Every few
seconds the same soft thudding could be heard somewhere out in
the fog.

He moved forward, then paused, straining to hear. Was that the
sound of a horse, far off? The creaking of a tree distorted by the
distance, by the imagination?

Komawara tried to stretch the tension out of his back and
shoulders. In a fog there could be more to fear than brigands: his
own men he trusted, but the local men who had joined the hunt for
bandits suffered in a silence of poorly hidden fear. Men quickly lost
their inner calm in fog such as this. It was as Shuyun had said,
robbed of sight, every sound became a threatЧeven a falling lump
of snow would be in danger from an arrow quickly loosed. The
arrow from an ally ended more lives in battle than men would speak
of.

Ten paces forward. Stop. Listen.

And then, among all the thousand imagined sounds, unmistakably,
the thud of hooves on stone. His own mount pricked up her ears.
Komawara jigged at the bit and pulled her nose up to his cheek.

УShh,Ф he whispered as though she understood. Three paces put
them among a stand of long-needled pines. The lord pulled the
reins over the mareТs head and made her lie down, saddle and
bags still in place. Automatically testing his sword in its scabbard,
he crouched down, intent on becoming part of his surroundings.