"Christopher Stasheff - Rogue Wizard 06 - A Wizard in Chaos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

to escape. Their bouncers followed hard on their heels, also mounted-but far
ahead, the Blue Company's reserves came charging down from the pine forest where
the captain had hidden them. They had carefully worked their way around the
hills and behind the enemy's lines. Now they proved their worth, surrounding the
bullies, catching the reins of their rearing warhorses and pulling their heads
down, then hauling their masters off their backs. More troopers cut off the
bouncers and unhorsed them, too. They let the boots go, running past the Blue
Company on either sidecommon soldiers brought no ransom. Now and then, a boot
slowed as if realizing he should defend his masters, but half a dozen Blue
Company pikemen turned, bellowing, to change his mind, and the boot ran on in
the midst of his fellows.
"No ransoms for us this time," the master sergeant grumbled.
"You weren't thinking of hiding a bouncer away to ransom on your own, were you?"


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Cort asked with a grin.
"No, of course not, lieutenant!" Sergeant Otto said quickly. "You know me better
than that!" Actually, Cort knew the man well enough to be sure that was exactly
what Otto would have done if he'd had the chance, and never mind that ,a lowly
noncom couldn't hold a man of higher rank prisoner. The bouncers' armor alone
would have been worth a year's pay for the master sergeant, though the noncom
probably would have kept the horseman's sword. "Share and share alike," he
reminded Sergeant Otto. "Whoever captures the bullies and bouncers the Blue
Company ransoms, we all share equally." They almost never caught a boss, of
course.
"I know that!" Sergeant Otto said, then realized Cort had been saying it for the
benefit of the three new men who had survived the battle. "After all, the
reserves may have caught them, but we're the ones who fought the battle and
drove the bullies and their bouncers into the reserves' arms!"
He took a cue well, Cort thought. "We'll have our turn at being reserves,
sergeant. Let's just hope that we don't have to charge the enemy to turn the
battle when our time comes."
"I'll hope indeed," Otto said with a grin. "There's a farm I'd like to buy,
lieutenant, but it's back home in the Domain of Evenstern, not here on a
battlefield!"
The recruits behind him forced an uneasy laugh. They were still marching, but
the enemy boots had fled into the pine forest themselves, and the Blue Company
held the field.
"There he goes!" Otto pointed at the top of a bald hill, where a horseman,
silhouetted against the sky, had turned his horse and ridden down out of sight
in the midst of his bodyguards.
Cort nodded. "So the Boss of Wicksley loses the day-and we lose the boss."
Otto shrugged. "Didn't think we'd catch him, did you, lieutenant? Bosses always
make sure they'll be safe, no matter who loses."
"He might be caught yet," Cort disagreed, "if he tries to rally what's left of
his men."
"More likely he'll ride home to his castle and bar his gates against the Boss of