"Anthony Piers - Sos the Rope" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

"Why?" Sav inquired as Sos fixed supper. `
"Why the arm?"
"No. I understand that. Why you?"
"I have been assigned to take over Sol's empire. He will hardly meet me in the circle until I bring down his chief lieutenants."
Sav leaned back carefully, favoring the arm. "I mean why you-Sos?"
First man, second day. He had betrayed himself already. "You can trust me," Sav said. "I never told anyone about your nights with Sola, and I wasn't bound by the circle code then, not to you, I mean. I won't tell anyone now. The information belonged to me only if I won it from you, and I didn't."
"How did you know?"
"Well, I did room with you quite a spell, remember. I got to know you pretty well, and not just by sight. I know how you think and how you smell. I was awake some last night-little ache in my arm-and I walked by your tent."
"How did you know me' sleeping when you did not know me awake?"
Sav smiled. "I recognized your snore."
"My-" He hadn't even known he snored.
"And one or two other things fit into place," Sav continued. "Like the way you stared at the spot on the ground where our little tent used to be-and I know you weren't remembering me! And the way you hummed `Red River Valley' today while we marched, same way Sola used to hum `Greensleeves,' even if you do carry a tune even worse than you did before. And the way you took care to make me look good in the circle, make me lose like a man. You didn't have to do that. You were taking care of me, same way I took care of you before."
"You took care of me?"
"You know-keeping the gals away from your tent all winter, even if I had to service `em myself. Sending a man to bring Sol back when it was time. Stuff like that."
Sol had stayed away...until Sola was pregnant!
"You knew about Sol?"
"I'm just naturally nosy, `I guess. But I can keep my mouth shut."
"You certainly can!" Sos took a moment to adjust himself to the changed situation. The staffer was a lot more knowledgeable and discreet than he had ever suspected. "All right, Sav. I'll tell you everything-and you can tell me how to keep my secrets so that nobody else catches on. Fair enough?"
"Deal! Except-"
"No exceptions. I can't tell anyone else."
"Except a couple are going to know anyway, no way to stop it. You get within a hundred feet of Sol, he'll know you. He's that way. And you won't fool Sola long, either. The others-well, if we can fake out Tor, no problem."
Sav was probably right. Somehow the thought did not disturb Sos; if he did his honest best to conceal his identity, but was known by those closest to him anyway, he could hardly be blamed. The word would not spread.
"You asked `why me? That's the same question I asked myself. They put pressure on me, but it wouldn't have been enough if I hadn't had internal doubts. Why me? The answer is, because I built the empire, though they didn't know that. I started it, I organized it, I trained it, I left men after me who could keep it rolling. If it is wrong, then I have a moral obligation to dismantle it-and I may be the only one who can do it without calamitous bloodshed. I am the only one who really understands its nature and the key individuals within it-and who can defeat Sol in the circle."
"Maybe you better start at the beginning," Sav said. "You went away, then I heard you came back with the rope, and Sol beat you and you went to the mountain-"
It was late at night by the time the complete story had been told.
Tyl's camp was much larger than Sav's had been. This was an acquisition tribe, contrasted to the training tribe, and by itself numbered almost five-hundred warriors. This time there was no stupidity at the entrance; Sav was a ranking member of the hierarchy, and there was the unmistakable ring of command in his normally gentle voice as he cut through obstacles. Ten minutes after they entered the camp they stood before Tyl himself.
"What brings you here unattended, comrade?" Tyl inquired cautiously, not commenting on the mending arm. He looked older, but no less certain of himself.
"I serve a new master. This is the nameless one, who sought me out and defeated me in the circle. Now he offers me and my tribe against you and yours."
Tyl contemplated Sos's tunic, trying to penetrate to the body beneath it. "With all due respect, ex-comrade, my tribe is more powerful than yours. He will have to meet my subchiefs first."
"Of course. Post a third of your tribe to correspond to mine. After the nameless one defeats your man, he will match both sections against the remainder. You can study' him today and meet him tomorrow."
"You seem to have confidence in him," Tyl observed.
Sav turned to Sos. "Master, if you would remove your dress-"
Sos obliged, finding it easy to let Sav handle things. The man certainly had talent for it. This early acquisition had been most fortunate. -
Tyl looked. "I see," he said, impressed. "And what is his weapon?" Then, "I see," again.
That afternoon Sos knocked out the subchief sworder with a single hammerblow of one fist to the mid-section. He had the sword by the blade, having simply caught it in midthrust and held it. A slight crease showed along the callus covering the metallic mesh embedded in his palm where the edge had cut; that was all. He had closed upon the blade carefully, but the witnesses had not been aware of that. They had assumed that he had actually halted' the full thrust with an unprotected hand.
Tyl, like Sav, was quick to learn. He, too, employed the sword, and he fenced with Sos's hands as though they were daggers, and with his head as though it were a club, and he kept his distance. It was wise strategy. The singing blade maintained an expert defense, and Tyl never took a chance.
But he forgot one thing: Sos had feet as well as hands and head. A sharp kick to the kneecap brought temporary paralysis there, interfering with mobility. Tyl knew he had lost, then, for even a narrow advantage inevitably grew, but he fought on, no coward. Not until both knees were dislocated did he attempt the suicide plunge.
Sos left the blade sticking in his upper arm and touched his fingers to the base of Tyl's exposed neck, and it was over.
Then he withdrew the blade and bound the wound together himself. It had been a stab, not a slash, and the metal reinforcement within the bone had stopped the point. The arm would heal.
When Tyl could walk, Sos added him to the party. They set out for the next major tribe, getting closer to Sol's own camp. Tyl traveled with his family, since Sos had not guaranteed any prompt return to the tribe, and Tyla took over household chores. The children stared at the man who had defeated their father, hardly able to accept it. They were too young yet to appreciate all the facts of battle, and had not understood that Tyl had been defeated at the time he joined Sol's nascent group. There were no frank conversations along the way Tyl did not recognize the nameless one, and Sav cleverly nullified dangerous remarks.,
They caught up to Tor's tribe after three weeks. Sos had determined that he needed one more leader in his retinue before he had enough to force Sol into the circle. He now had authority over more than six-hundred men-but eight tribes remained, some very large. Sol could still preserve his empire by refusing to let these tribes accept the challenge and by refraining from circle combat himself. But acquisition of a third tribe should make Sos's chunk of empire too big to let go.
Tor's tribe was smaller than Tyl's and more loosely organized, but still a formidable spread. A certain number of doubles teams were practicing, as though the encounter with the Pits had come out about even. Sos expected competent preparations for his coming, and was not disappointed. Tot met him promptly and took him into private conference, leaving Sav and Tyl out of it.
"I see you are a family man," he said.
Sos glanced at his bare wrist. "I was once a family man."
"Oh, I see." Tor, searching for weakness, had missed. "Well, I understand- you came out of nowhere,' defeated Sav and Tyl and mean to challenge Sol for his empire, and that you actually enter the circle without a weapon."
"Yes."
"It would seem foolish for me to meet you personally, since Tyl is a better fighter than I."
Sos did not comment.
"Yet it is not in my nature to avoid a challenge. Suppose we do this: I will put my tribe up against yours if you will meet my representative."
"One of your subchiefs? I will not put up six-hundred men against a minor." But Sos's real concern was whether Tor recognized him.