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

you."
Klesst nodded, impressed by the important task he had given
her. She smiled uncertainly as she shut tile closet, then quickly
shot the latch. She barely had time to scurry back to bed before
they came to her door.
"This is the kid's room," someone observed. "Been locked."
"Well, open it, anyway," ordered a gruff voice.
A scraping of the bolt, then suspicious faces peered in from the
hall.
 The gruff voice belonged to a paunchy man with thick
shoulders and a rolling gait. He carried an arbalest, his fingers
near the trigger. "Hey, kid," he demanded, "anybody come in
here?"
"No, sir," Klesst said, being polite to make him trust her.
Their eyes carefully searched the shadows of the room. "You
sure?"
"Yes, sir."
"You been awake?"
"Yes, sir."
"You sure you ain't been asleep?"
"No... I mean, yes, sir."
The man with the arbalest entered the room. Several other men
followed. Swords were bare in their fists.
A thin-faced mercenary examined the window. "It's locked,
Stundorn. No sign of blood or anything," he stated in a nasal
voice.
Stundorn shifted his arbalest. Klesst wondered why the steel
bow didn't snap its string. "Might have been open before. This
room is below Kane's, off to the side only a little. He might have
climbed down."
He frowned at Klesst. "You see anything, kid?"
"No, sir."
"You wouldn't lie now, would you?"
"No, sir."
"Do you know what happens to little girls who lie?"
 "Yes, sir." Klesst's imagination grappled with the possibilities.
"And you haven't seen any sign of a big bandit with blood just
pouring down his ribs where I shot him?"
"No, sir."
"Closet's latched from outside," someone noted.
"Now you aren't hiding my bandit inside your closet, are you?"
Stundorn rumbled.
"No, sir." What did happen to little girls who lied?
"Do you know I got an itchy nose?"
"No, sir."
"It's a fact. My nose itches every time I hear a lie." Klesst
stared in horrid fascination.
"Now why do you suppose it's itching right now?"
"I don't know, sir," she answered shakily.
Stundorn stood back from the closet door. He brought his