"Sean Russell - The Swan's War 2 - Isle of Battle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russell Sean)

smarter than humans in this regard. He hadn't gone far when he heard calling again, not
so far off and not so desperate now. More muffled and despairing.
He followed the cries, which were separated by long periods of silence. It took him some
time in the pale moonlight to locate the source. He parted the reeds and found a man,
dressed in a magistrate's costume, lying a few yards away. His head barely out of the
water, he was hopelessly entangled in a web of fine cord. A judge who'd met his
judgement.
The two regarded each other a moment.
"You've not heard of tanglevine, I take it?" Alaan said after a moment.
The man was tiring fast. He wouldn't be able to keep his head above water much longer.
"Gloat if you must," the man said, "but my fellows will do for you yet."
"They can't even find you when you're calling. How will they
┬г.t

ever find me? No, your friends have fallen to the same fate as you. Or have met with
some of the swamp's other perils. Or have wandered off into farther reaches and will not
find their way here again." Alaan reached out with his sword and tugged at a loop of
vine.тАЭ I once tried to count all the little spines in a short length of tanglevine but soon
gave it up. They're sharp as glass, as you've no doubt learned, and once they tighten
cannot be made loose again." With the tip of his sword Alaan pointed toward a closed
blossom, black in the moonlight.тАЭ Do you see these flowers? They are like those plants
that devour the flesh of unwary insects. At dawn they will open and slowly search about
until they have found you, alerted already by the tugging of the vines. Their kiss burns
like no passion you've ever known. They digest their prey a bit at a time, alive at first,
and then the carcass. They don't seem to care much if their food is alive and screaming
or dead and rotting. They haven't much refinement in this regard."

"They say you are brother to that bloody Eremon, and now I believe it."

Alaan tried to smile.тАЭ You shouldn't talk so to the man who will set you free."

Hope flashed in the man's eyes.тАЭ Why would you do that?" "You don't look like one of
Hafydd's guards. I assume you serve Hafydd's nominal master, Prince Neit of Innes?"
The man nodded.

"I have no argument with Prince Neit, though I think he's an ass. You've been hunting
me, but I'll forgive you that. You are a man-at-arms and have no say in who will be your
foe, who your friend." The man gazed at him now, wondering, hardly daring to hope.
Did this stranger torment him?

"I will have your oath, though. If I set you free, you will do me no harm and do as I say.
You cannot survive this swamp without me, I will tell you that. It is more fierce than
you."

The man continued to watch him closely but said nothing. Then he asked, "What will you
have of me?"



25