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

of the world.
Kang took a moment to regard his troops with pride, a pride that, these days,
seemed always to be mingled with sorrow. Once there had been six rows of draconian
solders lined up before their commander. Now they were down to four. Every time he
gave this speech, there were fewer to hear him.
He glanced over at Gloth, standing with the Support Troop in the rear. And there
was the soldier who had disobeyed orders and picked up the crossbow.
Kang lifted his voice. "You fought well today, men! Once again, we forced the
enemy to retreat, while suffering no significant casualties." He made no mention of
the lost sheep. "It has come to my attention, however, mat some of you are dissatisfied
with the way I've been running things around here. We're not in me army anymore.
But we all agreed that our only hope for survival was to maintain our discipline. You
chose me to be your commander, a responsibility I take seriously. Under my
leadership, we've held on here for twenty-five years. Life hasn't been easy, but then
life for us has never been easy.
"Yet, we managed to build this." Kang gestured to the neat rows of cabins made of
pine logs that stood inside the compound. "This village of ours is the first settlement
ever constructed by our people."
The first/said a voice inside Kang. And the last. , "I want to remind you," he
continued, his voice quiet, "of the reasons why we left the army. Why we came here."
The troops stood still, not a scale clicked, no link of armor jingled.
"We, the First Dragonarmy Engineers, have a proud history of service in the War
of the Lance. We were commended for our meritorious actions by Lord Ariakus
himself. We remained loyal to our Dark Queen, even during that terrible time in
Neraka, when our leaders forgot their noble mission and instead turned on each
other."
Kang paused a moment to relive history. "Think back on that time, men, and learn
from it. Our armies had succeeded, by a stroke of luck, in capturing the so-called
Golden General, the elf female who was leading the troops of the so-called Forces of
Good. And what did our commanders do with her? Instead of just slitting her throat,
as would have been the most sensible course of action, they put her on display for the
Dark Queen's pleasure. As even a kender could have foreseen, a group of her motley
friends, led by a bastard half-elf, turned up to rescue her. In the fight for the Crown of
Power, Lord Ariakus managed to get himself skewered. Some bloke with a green
jewel in his chest impaled himself on a rock and the Temple collapsed, bringing Her
Dark Majesty's ambitions down with it.
"You all remember that time," Kang said, his voke hardening. "We were ordered
by our human commanders to fight to the death, white tiiey escaped! Many of our
kind died that day. We chose not to obey. Some of us had foreseen this terrible end.
As far as we were concerned, these human commanders had forfeited, by their
stupidity and greed, their right to lead us. We marched off, leaving the war to those
who had bungled it. You elected me leader and, under my leadership, we headed
south, looking for a place to hide, a place to live.
"Evil turns in upon itself, or so the god-cursed Knights of Solamnia say. But that is
not true of the First Engineers." Kang spoke with growing pride. "We fought as a
cohesive unit for years. We were disciplined soldiers, accustomed to obeying orders.
And we had a new ambition, one that was born in the smoke and flame of battle. We
were sick of killing, sick ┬йf slaughter, sick of wanton destruction. We felt the urge to
build, to settle, to leave something of ourselves behind on this world. Something
lasting and permanent.