"Cook, Glen - Black Company 10 - Soldiers Live" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cook Glen)

There is no chance we will participate. But we permit them the
hope, the illusion. We have to get strong. We have a mission of our
own.

By standing still we have caused the blossoming of a city. A
once-chaotic encampment has become ordered and has acquired names,
Outpost or the Bridgehead among those who came from beyond the
plain and what translates as Abode of Ravens amongst the Children
of the Dead. The place keeps growing. It has generated scores of
permanent structures. It is in the processing of acquiring a wall.
The main street is being paved with cobblestones.

Sleepy likes to keep everyone busy. She cannot stand a loafer.
The Children of the Dead will inherit a treasure when we finally go
away.


Chapter 2

An Abode of Ravens: When the Baobhas Sang

Boom! Boom!
Somebody hammered on my door. I glanced at Lady. She had stayed up
late last night and so had fallen asleep while studying this
evening. She was determined to discover all the secrets of Hsien
magic and to help Tobo harness the startlingly plentiful
supernatural manifestations of this world. Not that Tobo needed
much help anymore.

This world has more real phantoms and marvellous beings hiding
in the bushes and behind the rocks and trees and on the edge of
night than any twenty generations of our own frightened peasants
could imagine. They gravitate toward Tobo as though he is some sort
of nightside messiah. Or amusing pet, maybe.

Boom! Boom! I would have to get off my butt myself. That looked
like a long, hard trek over there.

Boom! Boom! "Come on, Croaker! Wake up!" The door
swung inward as my visitor invited himself inside. The very devil
of my thoughts.

"Tobo . . . "

"Didn't you hear the baobhas singing?"

"I heard a racket. Your friends are always kicking up a
fuss about something. I don't pay any attention
anymore."