"Jack Vance - The Miracle Workers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

The Miracle Workers
Jack Vance

I

The war party from Faide Keep moved eastward across the downs: a
column of a hundred armored knights, five hundred foot soldiers, a train
of wagons. In the lead rode Lord Faide, a tall man in his early maturity,
spare and catlike, with a sallow dyspeptic face. He sat in the ancestral car
of the Faides, a boat-shaped vehicle floating two feet above the moss, and
carried, in addition to his sword and dagger, his ancestral side weapons.
An hour before sunset a pair of scouts came racing back to the column,
their club-headed horses loping like dogs. Lord Faide braked the motion of
his car. Behind him the Faide kinsmen, the lesser knights, and the
leather-capped foot soldiers halted; to the rear the baggage train and the
high-wheeled wagons of the jinxmen creaked to a stop.
The scouts approached at breakneck speed, at the last instant flinging
their horses sidewise. Long shaggy legs kicked out, padlike hooves plowed
through the moss. The scouts jumped to the ground, ran forward. "The
way to Ballant Keep is blocked!"
Lord Faide rose in his seat, stood staring eastward over the gray-green
downs. "How many knights? How many men?"
"No knights, no men, Lord Faide. The First Folk have planted a forest
between North and South Wildwood."
Lord Faide stood a moment in reflection, then seated himself and
pushed the control knob. The car wheezed, jerked, moved forward. The
knights touched up their horses; the foot soldiers resumed their slouching
gait. At the rear the baggage train creaked into motion, together with the
six wagons of the jinxmen.
The sun, large, pale, and faintly pink, sank in the west. North Wildwood
loomed down from the left, separated from South Wildwood by an area of
stony ground, only sparsely patched with moss. As the sun passed behind
the horizon, the new planting became visible: a frail new growth
connecting the tracts of woodland like a canal between two seas.
Lord Faide halted his car, stepped down to the moss. He appraised the
landscape, then gave the signal to make camp. The wagons were ranged in
a circle, the gear unloaded. Lord Faide watched the activity for a moment,
eyes sharp and critical, then turned and walked out across the downs
through the lavender and green twilight. Fifteen miles to the east his last
enemy awaited him: Lord Ballant of Ballant Keep. Contemplating the next
day's battle, Lord Faide felt reasonably confident of the outcome. His
troops had been tempered by a dozen campaigns; his kinsmen were loyal
and singlehearted. Head Jinxman to Faide Keep was Hein Huss, and
associated with him were three of the most powerful jinxmen of
Pangborn: Isak Comandore, Adam McAdam, and the remarkable Enterlin,
together with their separate troupes of cabalmen, spellbinders, and
apprentices. Altogether, an impressive assemblage. Certainly there were
obstacles to be overcome: Ballant Keep was strong; Lord Ballant would
fight obstinately; Anderson Grimes, the Ballant Head Jinxman, was
efficient and highly respected. There was also this nuisance of the First