"Karl Edward Wagner - Ravens Eyrie" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wagner Karl Edward)

consciousness into a deeper coma, rigidly controlling breath and
heart beat to so low air ebb as to appear lifeless to Pleddis's
inspection.
Several minutes after his enemies had quit his bedside, Kane
returned to full awareness. He realized he now had only a few
minutes to escapeтАФa short interval once Pleddis had ordered his
men from their surveillance of the inn. They would celebrate the
success of their lone hunt; for a moment all would be jubilant
confusion. Then for any of a hundred reasons someone would
return to the dead man upstairs. By then Kane must be gone.
He had cut it close. Too close. Kane had barely lowered
himself through the window when Stundorn entered the room. In
another instant their stunned fright would leave them. Someone
would peer out the open window.
And he could never reach the ground in time. Quickly Kane
took the only course left to him. Another window was close at
hand. Recklessly Kane clawed his way to the darkened aperture.
Somehow he managed to maintain a hold long enough to rest his
weight on the ledge. He pushed at the lattice.
It was secured.
Kane bit his lip and tore a knife from his belt. He jammed its
blade into the crack between window and casement. His
movements seemed panic-driven, but his haste was that of one
experienced in his task. In only a few seconds the latch snapped
free.
Swinging open the heavy lattice, Kane squeezed through the
window. No sooner had his cloak and sword scabbard cleared the
ledge than a shout from close by signalled that someone had
looked outside.
"No one on the wall!" a soldier called out.
 Kane grinned savagely and glared through the darkness of the
room. He was not alone.
A small figure crouched on the room's narrow bed. Her wide
eyes were almost luminous as she stared at himтАФa huge,
menacing figure outlined in the moonlight at her window,
"Are you alive?" she whispered. His appearance was
supernatural, and she had been listening to the shouts outside her
door.
Kane made no comment. He had swung into the child's room,
and he remembered that the door was locked from outside. His
dagger still shone in his hand. "Don't make a sound!" he hissed.
Klesst's voice was grave. "I won't tell them you're here," she
said, "Father."
"I remember one time down along the coast," Pleddis said,
staring into the empty room. "It was late fall, and we were
making camp for the night. Dragging in driftwood for a fire, and
one of the outfit hauls loose a big snagтАФand there's a swamp
adder thick as your arm, all laid out and sluggish with cold. Kid
was from the coast, knew what he had, so he just laid into it with
the stick of wood he was carrying, not even wasting time to pull