"Dave Duncan - A Handful Of Men 3 - The Stricken Field" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

Tonight of all nights she needed to sleep. She needed her mother, whom she had not seen in over two
months. In fact, she had not spoken with any woman in that time. She spoke to hardly anyone except
Blood Beak.

Blood Beak, her future husband, the goblin prince. By his standards, she supposed, she would now
class as nubile. The wedding could come any time now. She wished she had a breviary, to know the
right prayers to say and the right Gods to invoke. But she would not be able to read it in the dark, and
probably there was no proper prayer for this situation. Mom had told her that exact words didn’t really
matter. She hoped they didn’t, because she’d done a lot of very unorthodox praying lately. She’d even
prayed to the God of Rescues, and she wasn’t at all sure that there was a God of Rescues. Perhaps she
had prayed wrongly—to the God of Battles to send the legions and kill all the goblins, for example. The
God of Battles had not heeded her appeal. And the God of Rescues, if there was one, was not rescuing
those poor men and women outside. At least nothing that bad had happened to her, at least not yet.

If only they would be quiet outside there and let her sleep! There were so many victims tonight that the
torments might go on till dawn.

“Kadie?”

Perhaps she had floated off into a half sleep. It was not a scream that wakened her, it was a whisper.
She sat up with a stifled cry that was half a groan. Her hand fumbled for her sword. “Who’s there?”

“It’s me.”

“Go away!” And yet she was relieved that it was Blood Beak. She could see him now. The barn was
not completely dark.

“I need to talk with you.”

“We talked all day. You can talk all tomorrow. Go away. I’m sleeping.”

“You were weeping. I heard you.” He came closer. “Why were you weeping?” He spoke impish very
well now, when no one else was listening.

“I wasn’t. Why shouldn’t I weep? What does it matter to you? Go away!”

She had her sword ready, although her palm was so slippery wet and shaking that she doubted she
could use it. Her heart was pounding madly. She had driven Quiet Stalker to his death and she would kill
Blood Beak if he tried to touch her. Yes, she would! He did not come close enough. He knelt down by
her wall of straw, just out of reach.

“Don’t want you to weep.”

She couldn’t think of an answer. The more she thought about it, the more that remark seemed totally
wrong. “Kadie, I’m worried.”

And that one, too. “What’s the matter?” She saw a gleam of firelight on his face and chest, and dark
stains. “You’re hurt!”

“No.”