"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 05 - The Jester at Scar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

The Jester at Scar
#5 in the Dumarest series

E.C. Tubb


Chapter One


In the lamplight, the woman's face was drawn, anxious.
"Earl," she said. "Earl, please wake up."

Dumarest opened his eyes, immediately alert. "What is it?"

"Men," she said, "moving outside. I thought I heard noises
from the street, screams and the sound of laughter." The
guttering flame of the lamp threw patches of moving shadow
across her face as she straightened from the side of the bed.
"Cruel laughter, it had an ugly sound."

He frowned, listening and hearing nothing but the normal
violence of the night. "A dream," he suggested. "A trick of the
wind."

"No." She was emphatic. "I've lived on this world too long to
be mistaken. I heard something unnatural, the noise of men
searching, perhaps. But it was there; I didn't imagine it."

Dumarest threw back the covers and rose, the soft lamp light
shining on his hard, white skin and accentuating the thin scars
of old wounds. The interior of the hut was reeking with damp,
the ground soggy beneath his bare feet. He took his clothes from
the couch and quickly dressed in pants, knee-high boots and a
sleeved tunic which fell to mid-thigh. Carefully he fastened the
high collar around his throat. From beneath the pillow he took a
knife and sheathed it in his right boot.
 "Listen." said the woman urgently. The lamp was a bowl of
translucent plastic containing oil and a floating wick. It shook a
little in her hand. "Listen!"

He tensed, ears straining against the ceaseless drum of rain,
the gusting sough of wind. The wind slackened a little then blew
with redoubled force, sending a fine spray of rain through the
poorly constructed walls of the shack. More rain came through
the sloping, unguttered roof and thin streams puddled the floor.
Among such a medley of sounds it would be easy to imagine
voices.

Relaxing, Dumarest glanced at the woman. She stood tall, the
lamp now steady in her hand. Her eyes were set wide apart, deep