"David Eddings - The Dreamers 01 - The Elder gods" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

‘I’m doing my best, Cap’n,’ Rabbit whined. ‘Nobody on board likes it
when I practice tooting, so I’m sort of rusty.’
The Seagull rounded the tip of the sand-spit, and the crew gathered
near the bow to look at the village crouched at the head of a shallow inlet.
‘Not too fancy,’ Ox observed. ‘Mostly sticks chinked with grass.’
‘You weren’t expecting palaces, were you, Ox?’ Sorgan asked. ‘I’m
just as happy not to see stone walls and such. We’re only one ship, so we
don’t really want to find folks with all kinds of civilization to back them
up. It looks to me like we might have found this place before the Trogites
did. Tell the crew not to start waving swords and spears. We don’t want
to make these folks nervous. Those woods are pretty close to the edge of
that village, and I’d rather not sprout a dozen or so arrows while I’m
trying to talk to the head-man of the village. Take the Seagull on into the
bay, Ox, but we’ll drop anchor a little ways out from the beach. I’ll take
the skiff and go a little bit closer and then stop. I expect the villagers’ll
get my point. I want to talk, not to pick a fight.’
Ox grunted and eased the Seagull into the inlet. When she was about a
hundred yards from the beach, he ordered the crew to drop anchor, and
several crew-men lowered Hook-Beak’s skiff.
‘I’ll stay within bow-shot,’ the captain said to Ox, ‘but tell the crew to
keep their weapons out of sight - unless things start getting sticky.’ Then
he climbed over the side and lowered himself into his skiff. He set his
oars in place, rowed in a ways, then stopped and waited.
Several people from the village came down to the beach, and they
seemed to be holding some kind of discussion. Then a tall lean man with
long blond braids and wearing leather clothing got into a kind of canoe,
and the other villagers pushed the canoe into deeper water. Then the
blond man paddled out to where Hook-Beak waited. He seemed to be
very skilled at it. As he came closer and the men on the Seagull could see
him more clearly, Sorgan felt a brief chill. This was obviously a man to
be taken seriously. He was quite lean, and his face was hard. It was his
eyes, however, that had so chilled the captain of the Seagull. There was a
sort of determination there that Sorgan had seldom seen before. When
this particular native wanted something, he would obviously go to any
lengths to obtain it. Sorgan was fairly certain that it was time to tread
very carefully.
‘What do you want?’ the stranger asked. He didn’t sound particularly
belligerent, and Hook-Beak took that to be a good sign. He was just a bit
surprised that the other man spoke the language of the Maags. That
should make things a lot easier. ‘We aren’t here to cause any trouble,
friend,’ he said. ‘We’re strangers in these parts, and we don’t know
exactly where we are.’
‘This is the Land of Dhrall,’ the other man replied, ‘and this is the
Domain of Zelana of the West. Does that answer your question?’
‘I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of Dhrall before,’ Sorgan said. ‘Of
course, we’re a long way from home, and that might explain why. Is this
Zelana your king, or something along those lines?’
‘Not exactly. You’ll be meeting her before long, I expect. You’re
Sorgan Hook-Beak, aren’t you?’
‘How did you know that?’ Sorgan was startled.