"S. M. Stirling & David Drake - The General 01 - The Forge" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stirling S. M)

of how long it had been since he had a drink. Then he swore
again, softly, as Thom dropped down beside him and the nature
of the floor he was standing on became plain.

"Bones," he whispered. Thom unshuttered his lantern and
swung the beam around, brighter than the white glow from the
doorway and better for picking out detail.

"Lots of bones," his friend agreed, sounding more subdued
than usual.

Not quite enough that you could not find clear space for your
feet, but nearly, and the crumbled dust between them spoke of
others still older.

"And look," Thom continued. "What the hell's that?" That was
a rust-crusted weapon; Raj picked it up, and pursed his lips in a
soundless whistle.

"It's a koorg-rifle," he said. "The Civil Government Armory
stopped issuing them two hundred years ago."

Raj might not have been to the schools of rhetoric, but there
was nothing wrong with his grasp of military history.
"Double-barreled muzzle loader with octagonal barrels."
 His friend's light picked out other items of equipment; off by
the other wall there was what looked like one of the ceremonial
weapons the mannequins of the Audience Hall Guard carried.
Raj looked closer: it was not, it was a real laser, the ancient Holy
Federation weapon. The metal men in the Hall of Audience
carried non-functional replicas, but this was the real thing. The
soldier's eyes narrowed as he followed the line of the muzzle;
there was a deep pit to the upper right of the door, melted into
the stonework, with a long dribbling icicle of lava below it.
Nothing on the metal of door or frame, although the melt would
have crossed it.

"Thom," Raj said briskly. "This has gone too far; this is
seriously strange. We should fall back and report. Now."

Reluctantly, the other man nodded. AndтАФ

CRANG. The door above their heads slammed shut so quickly
that the huge musical note of the pry bar breaking was almost
lost in the thunder-slam of its closing. A fragment of the steel bar
cannoned across the corridor and ricocheted back, falling at
Raj's feet. He bent to touch it, and stopped when his skin felt a
glow from the torsion-heat of breakage. Thom was standing and
examining the linked belts; the buckle that had fastened them to
the bar was missing, and the tough reptile hide cut as neatly as if