"Springer, Nancy - Book Of The Isle 2 - Silver Sun" - читать интересную книгу автора (Springer Nancy)

book one
THE FOREST

Chapter One

The Forest was the abode of warlocks, folk said, and gob-
lins, and other creatures even worse. Still, Alan bent his
staggering steps toward the Forest, as a desperate man
will. Robbers had stripped him of everythingЧhorse,
weapons, even his clothing. The peasants could not spare
him more than a beggar's crust. But within the Forest wil-
derness, Alan hoped, he might be able to find something
to eat and a covering for his naked body.

He had not reckoned on his own dizzying weakness.
The world swam before his eyes, and trees encircled him
with a green blur. He sensed movement and angry shout-
ing, but he did not care. Then the sting of a sword-flat
across his back jolted him into full awareness.

Alan found himself facing a big, angry captain at the
head of a mounted patrol. The next blow of the captain's
sword knocked him to the ground. He lay sprawling, with
no strength to flee or defend himself. Closing his eyes,
Alan braced himself against the punishing blade.

But as suddenly as the blows had begun, they ceased.
Alan looked up. What he saw was to remain clear in his
memory for as long as he lived.

The burly captain had turned pale with fear. His chin
quivered above a glinting blade pressed against his fleshy

The Forest 3

throat. But more fearsome than the sword's point, Alan
thought, was the one who held the sword. He was a youth
with the face of a warrior, straight of brow and strong of
JawЧbut there was more than a warrior's power about
him. His eyes were steel gray, and there was some quality
in his hard gaze that caused the captain to tremble and
flinch, that caused Alan himself to struggle to his feet in
hazy alarm. Yet he could not name the fear that he felt-

The gray-eyed youth spoke a few words that Alan
could not understand, while his glance flashed with an
eerie intensity of will that shocked Alan anew. Though
the stranger had not moved, holding his sword to the cap-
tain's throat, the horses plunged away from him. The cap-
tain's men could not control them. Squealing and shying,