"Christopher Stasheff - Rogue Wizard 07 - A Wizard In Midgard" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

be taught not to run, doesn't she?"
"She does!" One of the men moistened his lips, eyes greedy. "And what's the
worst hurt you can give a woman, eh?" The others answered with a shout of
agreement. Someone caught at Alea's free foot, but she screamed in terror and
kicked, wrenched a wrist free, and lashed out with a fist. It connected, but the
men roared and descended on her in a body. She fought desperately, afraid of
death but suddenly not caring, as long as the nightmare didn't happen again.
But they were falling back away from her, something was making dull thudding
sounds, and men were crying out in rage and alarm. As breath came back, Alea saw
a huge man laying about with a proper quarterstaff, knocking her tormentors
aside. They shouted with anger and leaped away from the madman, and she saw her
chance. She scrambled to her feet and ran toward the trees.
"Catch her!" the leader bellowed.
Alea heard feet pounding behind her, but she heard something crack too, then
heard the knocking of wood against wood, and the trees closed mercifully about
her as she ran, gasping and sobbing, trying to find a tree big enough, a cave
deep enough, anywhere to hide, to be safe.
Behind her, Gar laid about him with his staff, taking his share of knocks but
dealing out five for each one he received. More importantly, though, he reached
out with his thoughts and struck terror into the minds of each of the hunters.
One or two had the courage to come back at him a second time, though dread was
surging up from their stomachs. The rest ran, howling in sheer terror, away from
Gar and from the poor woman they'd been wrestling.
"Giants!" someone shouted. "Giants!" But none seemed to remember that they'd
been trained to fight the huge man.
Gar lashed out at the last two with virtual explosions of panic as his staff
whirled to strike first one, then the other. They spun away, fear finally
mastering them, and ran down the road, back the way they had come.
Gar stood watching them go, chest heaving with exertion, filled with the elation
of victory, even if he'd had to cheat a bit-but when it was one man against half
a dozen, using projective telepathy to scare them into running was fully
justified. He was quite willing to let them think he was a small giant. After
all, by the time they reached home, he would have grown three feet in their
memories anyway.
They went around the bend in the road and were gone from his sight, and from his
mind, too. Gar looked around for the woman they'd been manhandling. He didn't
see her and, all things considered, he didn't blame her, either. He went on the
way he'd been going, noticing where her tracks ran off the road, then where her
steps began to shorten. She had run to hide in the woods-wise, under the
circumstances. He hoped she was good at covering her trail, for the hunters had
dogs. True, with the scare he'd given them, they might not stop running till
they were home-but then again, they might. In fact, they might even try to cover
up their fear with anger, and come back to take, revenge on the vulnerable one.
Of course; they wouldn't try to attack her if Gar were with her, or even nearby.
He had a notion he'd have to settle for nearby-after the shock the woman had
just suffered, she wouldn't be likely to trust any man again. She'd seemed
unusually brave, though, fighting back every inch of the way. She hadn't caved
in for a second.
Gar was surprised at the admiration he felt, and told himself he would have
admired that kind of heart just as much in a man. Nonetheless, he decided to