"S. M. Stirling - Sea of Time 03 - On the Oceans of Eternity" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stirling S. M)

and the other Americans of William Walker's band were making
of this Bronze Age kingdom. He really did know a lot more about
this stuff than his dad. Hard to remember they'd been here most
of a decade now.

The young man spoke: "And this coal"тАФhe used the English
word, there being no equivalent in Mycenaean GreekтАФ"is it
better than charcoal because it burns hotter, or because it is a
stonelike ore and can support more weight, or what?"

However grimly the telestai might cling to old usage on their
baronies, language had grown less formal among the new elite of
Great Achaea under the influence of twentieth-century English.
Philhippos's father disliked that particular trend; he raised a
hand, and the boy added hastily: "Lord Cuddy."

"Both, and because there's more of it," Cuddy said. "Now that
we've got the mines up in Istria going, we can ship it down by
sea cheaper than burning charcoal up in the hills; and besides,
eventually we'd run out of trees."

He whistled, and the workers at the top let down the
inspection platform. The overlords stepped onto it, and it rose
smoothly up to the summit and the heavy iron-coated collar of
timbers around it. From there Cuddy could look down on the
raw, brawling town of Neayoruk, down to the smoke and
thronging masts of the harbor enclosed by a mole running out to
an island half a mile from shore, and to the hammered-metal
brightness of the Laconian Gulf beyond. Sweat sprang out on his
forehead and he turned gratefully to a cooling wind from the
water, bringing the tang of salt, coal smoke, the hot metal of the
forges whose hearths sent trails of smoke up to the azure
Mediterranean sky.
 "We're on schedule," he said with relief, taking in the activity
below with an experienced eye.

"That is good," Augewas said. "The Wolf Lord will be pleased."

"Yeah," Cuddy said, shivering slightly at the thought of
William Walker, King of Men. "That's real good."

CHAPTER ONE
September, 10 A.E.тАФBabylon, Kingdom of
Kar-Duniash

October, 10 A.E.тАФSevern valley, Alba October, 10 A.E
.тАФWalkeropohs, Kingdom of

Great Achaea October, 10 A.E.тАФIrondale, Alba