"Margeret Weis & Don Perrin - Dragonlance - The Chaos War 01 - The Doom Brigade" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weis Margaret)

yelling. "Put that bow down! You know the commander's orders."
"I know 'em, but I don't like 'em!" the draconian snarled sullenly, keeping hold of
the crossbow.
Kang could have charged in, thrown his weight around, brought the situation under
control. He restrained himself, however, waited to see how his troop commander
handled the situation.
"You don't like mem, sir!" Gloth repeated.
From the north came shouts and howls and yells. The draconians, armed with
sticks, were shoving the ladders, filled with dwarves, away from the walls. Gloth eyed
the mutinous soldier grimly, and Kang waited tensely for his troop commander to lose
control and start bashing heads together. That's what Gloth would have done in the
old days.
But the draconian officer was evidently developing subtlety.
"Look, Rorc, you know we can't use crossbows, and you know why we can't use
them. Do I have to go over this again?" Gloth raised his hand, pointed. "Now, take
that dwarf right there, for instance. Sure, he's an ugly bastard, what with all that hair
on his face and that potbelly and those little sfubby legs. But maybe, just maybe,
Rorc, that mere dwarf is the very dwarfтАФmaybe the only dwarfтАФwho knows the
recipe for dwarf spirits. You shoot him, Rorc, and, yes, you send another god-cursed
dwarf back to Reorx, but what happens the next time we raid their village? We find a
sign on the distillery saying 'Owner deceased. Out of business.' And where does that
leave us, Rorc?"
Rorc glowered but did not respond.
"I'll tell you where that leaves us," Gloth continued solemnly. "Thirsty, that's what.
So you just put down that bow and pick up your club like a good draco, and I won't
say nothing about this breach of orders to the commander/'
Rorc hesitated, but finally threw down the crossbow. Picking up his club, he
leaned over the wall, prepared to beat off the assault. Gloth grabbed the crossbow and
marched off with it. Kang beat a hasty retreat to his command post.
It was a shame he'd have to pretend he hadn't seen any of this. He would have
liked to have given Gloth well-deserved praise for his deft handling of what could
have turned into an ugly situation.
Kang couldn't really blame the soldier. It was frustrating as hell having to put up
with these annoying dwarven raids, when back in the old days the draconians would
have just swooped down on the dwarves, killed them, and leveled their little village.
But the old days were gone, as Kang was constantly working to make his
draconians understand.
Returning to his position, Kang surveyed the field of battle. The dwarven ladder
bearers had planted their ladders, the dwarves were climbing up them. The draconians
successfully pushed away four of the ladders over, but several dwarves scrambled
over the remaining two ladders, dubs and fists swinging.
The dwarves were a tough target for the draconians to hit. Standing about four and
a half feet tall, the dwarves ducked under the legs of the seven-foot tall draconians,
whose chibs and sword blades generally whistled right over the dwarves' heads.
Kang spotted six dwarves, who darted and weaved and jumped, eluding all
attempts by the draconians to stop them. The dwarves leapt off the wall and
disappeared inside the draconian village.
Kang swore.
"Damn! Slith, take the First Squadron and go after them. We've only got ten head
of sheep left. I can't afford to lose any of them. Go!"