"John Dalmas - Yngling 4 - The Yngling in Yamato" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dalmas John)

sweeping the length of a steep-sided valley whose grassy bottom contained a brook. Other horsemen, barely
glimpsed, rode through coniferous forest on the slopes. Conifer groves bordered the brook, and he glimpsed
animals trotting through them: elk3 and wild horses.
Not long afterward he found a force of men, five or six hundred of them, mostly on foot. They were perhaps
twenty-five miles from the Buriat camp, hiking along a sparsely forested ridge crest. These were not Mongols of any
tribe; their hair hung in heavy braids. "Yakut-Russ," Ted guessed aloud, and Nils nodded. They carried bows and
quivers, and swords rode at their belts. They seemed to know where the Buriat camp was, at least approximately; the
ridge they were on would lead them near it.
Aboard the Alpha, everyone napped intermittently, but with someone always on the viewer. Hans found another,
seemingly smaller hunting party riding toward camp, pack horses loaded with game, mostly elk. Nikko and Matt
casually discussed projects they might undertake after delivering Nils and Hans back to their clan. Ted suggested
they explore the situation on the Japanese islands. Japanese was one of the languages he'd deep-learned before leaving
New Home, and the history and culture of pre-plague Japan had intrigued him.
The sun was low, coloring the clouds, when the larger party of hunters returned to camp. Matthew turned to Nils.
"Shall we go down?"
"Not now. Take me to Urga, first. There is something there I want to have with me when I meet Kaidu."

--- 3 The term "elk," as used here, refers to Siberian animals (the Altai maral) of the genus Cervus,
closely related to the European red deer. They are much larger, however, equivalent in size to the North
American Cervus commonly termed elk or wapiti.
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Matt frowned but swung southward, setting the controls for Urga. When they got there, Nils waited till after
nightfall, then had Matthew put him down some four kilometers from the encampment. There was no moon. The
opaqued pinnace, hidden by darkness, sat on the steppe in the shelter of a force shield for more than six hours. After
the first two, Matthew and Nikko had grown increasingly uneasy at Nils's continued absence, but surprisingly, to
them, Ted Baver seemed quite relaxed. Hans had begun the wait a bit sourly; he'd wanted to go with Nils, but the
eyeless giant had refused, saying that in this, stealth was vital, and numbers a disadvantage. But having had a strenuous
and sleepless night, the night before, Hans had soon fallen asleep, curled on the deck like some long angular animal.
When Nils returned, only Matthew was awake. The Northman stood just outside the force shield, and spoke
in Swedish, as if to establish his identity without question. As soon as he was inside, Matt re-formed the domed shield.
Nilcko had wakened, as had Ted; Hans still slept. Nils appeared to have been sprayed with blood, obviously not his
own or he wouldn't be there. He'd taken with him a clear plastic bag. Now he tossed it on the deck. Matthew
looked, and almost threw up.
"I'll need it later tonight," Nils said. "Now I want to go back to Kaidu s hunting camp." He turned to Nikko then; she
looked pale enough to faint. Gesturing at his leather breeches and bare torso, he said, "When I had the chance, I
wiped myself off with grass as well as I could, but it had mostly dried by then."

They were all awake when the autopilot brought them to the coordinates of the khan's hunting camp. Matthew
stopped above it at 1,000 meters. "Now what?" he asked.
"Lower to a hundred doubles, then light all the inside lights, and make the hull one-way transparent."
That would make the hull opalescent, seen from outside. The Northman warrior, it seemed to Matthew, never
forgot anything he'd seen or heard, assimilating it all as part of his mental universe, ready for use in analysis or action.
And he'd
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shown more than once a mastery of dramatics. Matt nodded. "Right," he said, and began to take the Alpha
down.

Aibek, son of Elbek, stood guard outside Kaidu's tent. Not that the khan was in danger here, for aside from
the double handful of slaves, the men were sworn nökür to Kaidu. But guards were always set. It was the
latter part of the night, in the time of the new moon, and very dark, so when the light flashed on in the sky,