"Zimmer,.Paul.Edwin.-.A.Gathering.of.HerosUC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zimmer Paul Edwin)

But what were they, and why did they choose to take the shape of birds? Brows knotting, he tried to remember that old story from his childhood. For a second, one line from a song stood clearЧ"Liogar cloaked in a sun's bright flame"Чhe shook his head. That did not seem right. Starlight, perhaps, or moonlight, but . . .
White horses raced through the moonlight, the swallows flashing above. With Immortals from legend to guide him, he rode to the aid of the mysterious city of Rath Tintallain.
CHAPTER FIVE
The Secret Gates
Ghost-white elf-steeds galloped toward the dawn; golden moons rose above the trees. Tahion rested, his horse surging under him. When they reached the journey's end, he could sleep.
At least, when the dawn came, demons and trolls must hide from the sunlight.
One of the swallows vanished in a blur, and Tahiop knew it had materialised in Rath Tintallain with news of their coming. The other darted down to Dorialith, circling about the Sea-Elf s head.
A moment later the Sea-Elf's horse loomed up next ,to Tahion, and he heard Dorialith's voice through the wind in his ears.
"Liogar is telling me," the long-bearded elf saidЧand once again Tahion wondered how he told Liogar from Z'jarЧ "that there are men and goblins in the woods about Rath Tintallain. We will not reach the main gate without a fight, and we will have fighting enough once we are inside. But if we go craftily, we should be able to reach one of the hidden gates to the dwarf city. Ogar Hammerhand will be able to lead us to it, and if you ride with Ogar you might bring us there with the least trouble."
51
52 Paul Edwin Zimmer
Through starlight and shadow the elf-horses ran. Trees rushed past. Bright-gold dawn moons hung before them in the east. The swallows, white, glowing, darted through the sky.
Once, demon-wailing came from the path ahead; a swallow blurred to a light, and vanished. A slender shaft of brilliance glowed above the trees. The demon's voice rose in a wild shriek, thinned and faded. The beam of light was gone, and there were two swallows in the air above.
The sky paled ahead. And the shocking-sweet, trilling whisper of the swallows sang through all their brains.
' 'Farewell, friends. We have come now to the very edge of the world. Now we must leave you. Watch for us tomorrow, when nightfalls!"
And with that, the gleaming swallow-shapes shot straight up into the air, shrinking rapidly to tiny twin stars, and were gone.
The sky paled. Golden moons faded. Birds woke and shook the branches of the trees, while their voices rose, twittering, calling. The twin suns climbed through the treetops.
And as sunlight came pouring over the edge of the world, it leaped in flame from the topmost towers of Rath Tintallain that thrust up from the trees.
Tahion stood by his horse, looking out through a screen of leaves over an endless green carpet made of treetops, that swept to the top of the far-off hill where glittering spires clustered like a crystal crown tipped with blood.
Even across the valley, Tahion could sense the magic that throbbed about it.
Squawking ducks lifted with beating wings from the sleepy little river hid among the trees. Arrows flew among them: one fell.
Through the eyes of a well-hidden squirrel, Tahion watched the hunters then moved on. Demons had sunk into the ground with the coming of dawn, and trolls had hidden themselves hastily in deep caves; but Rath Tintallain was still guarded. Men from Sarlow, sorcerers in black cloth and soldiers in mail, camped before the gates. Savage, half-human Irioch from the Sarlow border prowled through the woods. In the darkest thickets they could find, goblins hid from sunlight, watching about them with huge, nocturnal eyes.
A GATHERING OF HEROES 53
Most were one variety or another of the common rat-goblin, found in shallow networks of burrows all through the Forest of Demons; their spindly bodies, bullet heads, and long, sticklike arms and legs covered with dirty furЧgrey, black or brown.
But there were also a few of the rare, deep-cave goblins, smaller than the others, hairless and ink-black, with nearly human features under great bat ears, and bodies nearer to human proportionЧscaled, long-tailed hobgoblins that the Dark Ones were said to have bred from the tiny lizards that hide under rocks, and pallid, sluglike goblins from the southern caves.
They hid in the darkest thickets, frightening out small creatures who had hidden there from foragers for the army of Sarlow. Few natural beasts were left: Tahion could not get as clear a picture as he would have liked. But the trees near an elvish dwelling are more aware than others.
As Tahion's mind swept through the valley, he became aware of some disturbance from beyond, a wave of terror that spread through the trees from the direction of Sarlow. Something moved there, moved in sunlight . . .
Ogar Hammerhand shaded his eyes under his broad palm. He was still mounted. Dismounted, his head would have barely reached Tahion's elbow, though in the saddle he was as tall as any.
"Well?" the dwarf asked. "Are we to go on today at all?" His voice was thick and gruff, his beard dark, with coppery tints. Tahion did not answer, but turned instead to Doriclith.
"Something is coming up from the north-east," he said. "Something mat does not fear the light of the suns."
"Then we'd best move quickly," said the Sea-Elf, stroking his long beard. "We do not want to be caught outside the walls."
Tahion studied the valley once more, his mind seeking out each group of men and goblins, noting landmarks as he charted a course between them.
"We ride," said Tahion, scrambling to his horse's back, and touching the creature's mind with his own.
The horses rushed down the hillside, a silent avalanche out of the wood. They overtook birds on the wing and as they raced down the slope shifted among themselves, until men
54 Paul Edwin Zimmer
with no woodcraft rode in the middle. Suddenly they were running on level ground, and men could see greensward between great pillars of trees that held up a roof of layered leaves.
Tahion led them a twisting, turning course, avoiding men and goblins. The elf-horses, silent as ghosts, followed as though bound by invisible strings. There were foes to the left and foes to the right who never saw them pass.
They stopped all together, like a flock of birds settling in a tree.
"Now you must guide us, dwarf," Tahion said as Ogar Hammerhand's horse drew up beside his. "A group of the enemy is over there," he pointed, "just over that knoll. There are goblins in that thicket.''
The dwarf looked thoughtfully around, and then up at the hill where the towers of Rath Tintallain glittered. He swung his short legs and pounded his heels against the elf-steed's snow-white flanks. Dorialith looked pained. The horse moved forward, slowly.
Tahion's mind haunted the forest, looking through the eyes of birds, sensing through the dim awareness of the trees . . .
A choked death scream, suddenly cut off, came from the left. An Irioch scout had blundered in among the elves there. His cry brought others, who rushed into a swarm of elf-arrows.
"Hurry!" said Tahion. The dwarf scowled, and pointed through the trees.
"There," he said. "Get to that rock."
All around them they heard crashing brush and shouting men.
The elf-horses leaped forward, a blur of flashing white. They pulled up in front of a rough slope of gnarled grey rock. The dwarf slid down from the saddle and waddled quickly toward it on his short legs.
A frightened bird leaped up from a bush, and through its eyes Tahion saw scarecrow shapes in a dense thicket. He shouted a warning, and his horse blurred ahead of the dwarf.
Ogar Hammerhand pulled free the sword slung on his back. Tahion leaped from the saddle, and the Sword of Kings flashed in the sun, while pallid need-fire flickered along its edge. Dorialith's steed came swooping in.
Out of the bushes burst hordes of scrawny, long-limbed
A GATHERING OF HEROES 55