"Karl Edward Wagner - Kane 01 - Darkness Weaves" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wagner Karl Edward)

and trust to luck that they might not run into anything a quick fight could not carry them through.
Drumming hoofbeats muffled their flight along the sodden road beneath storm-heavy midnight skies.

Twice along the way they had to leave the road to make a wide detour of army outposts that kept a
check on all travellers. Then the ride was suddenly halted--as Essen, the scout, rushed back upon them.

Savagely reining- in his plunging horse, he gasped out, "Five of them! They heard me turn bark, and
they're hot after me!"

Five. They had blundered upon a small patrol.

"Keep on running, and we'll ambush them," ordered Kane, taking charge without thinking twice.
"Quick--the rest of you over here and take cover in the trees. They'll ride past hot on the trail and never
look up. You with bows--get ready and we'll cut them down!"

He gave a quick critical glance at the terrain, then snapped, "You there without a bow--down the road
and head off anyone who gets past us. Hurry, damn you!"

With a loud thrashing but not undue confusion, Kane's commands were carried out. Imel kept silent as
he slid behind cover. He had had no illusions about who was commanding the band, anyway. Barely had
they withdrawn into the shadow of the trees and readied their weapons when four Combine cavalrymen
tore into view.
 Hoping that Imel had carefully selected his party, Kane fired his crossbow and sent the iron quarrel
drilling through the eye of the lead rider. A deadly chorus of twangs followed on his shot, and two other
riders catapulted from their saddles--each with a pair of shafts quivering in his chest. The fourth rider
raced through unscathed--saved not by bad marksmanship, but because there had been no time for the
archers to call their targets.

"Stop him, Labe! Damn it man, stop him!" shouted Imel, alerting the survivor to his new danger. He
jerked free his sword just in time to meet the attack of the Pellinite who lay waiting for him. Desperately
the soldier traded blows with his adversary--knowing the others would be on him in an instant. Then,
using a trick that caught the inferior horseman unaware, the cavalryman crashed his mount into the other.
Startled, Labe swayed off-balance, and the cavalryman slashed his blade downward through unguarded
shoulder and into the other's spine.

Ripping his sword free from the blood-gushing corpse, the soldier bolted across the road for the shelter
of the woods. He had just left the roadway when a searing pain pierced his throat and lifted him head
over heels from his saddle. He fell in a broken jumble on the forest floor, blood pouring hotly over the
quarrel that skewered his neck.

Kane lowered his crossbow, thankful that the brief struggle had given him time to get off a second shot.
The crossbow's greater range and power balanced against the additional time it required to load and fire;
someday Kane hoped to find a bow with equal power that was practical to use from horseback--not that
a crossbow was much fun to manage on a running mount.

Essen rode back warily, having assumed from the disappearance of his pursuers that the skirmish was
over. Kane questioned him, "Did I hear you right that there were five horsemen?"

"Yes, Five--I'm certain."