"Raymond E. Feist - Wood Boy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Feist Raymond E)

he couldn't make out the sounds. Assuming it was Mikia and Torren again, he
rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.
Again he was almost dozing when he realized something was wrong. As he
turned over, he saw something moving rapidly towards him in the gloom, a large
dark shape. He sat up, reflexively pulling away from what was coming towards
him.
Two things happened at once. Someone slashed at him, a blade cutting into
the fabric of his coat below his collarbone, and he struck the hay door with
his back. He choked out an inarticulate cry, unable to speak for the terror
which overwhelmed him. Then another body slammed into him with a strangled cry
and he felt the door latch behind him give.
Never too sturdy, the latch parted as the weight of two bodies struck it,
and with a muffled cry, Dirk fell out of the hay door, down to the
snow-covered ground below. He landed with a thud that drove the breath out of
him.
Then the other body landed on him, and Dirk was knocked senseless.

He awoke as the sky was lightening. He was freezing and barely able to
breathe. His left eye seemed glued shut and something on top of him held him
firmly to the ground.
Dirk tried to move, and discovered that Hemmy lay atop him. 'Hey, get off!'
he said, but his voice was weak and strangled. A burning pain below his throat
caused him to gasp when he moved.
His legs were numb from the cold, and he lay in a hole in the snow. He
wiggled his bottom and managed to work his way upright and realized Hemmy was
dead. The older boy's face was white, and his throat was cut. Terror
galvanized Dirk and he lifted the corpse enough to get out from beneath him,
forcing numb legs to do his bidding.
He pulled himself out of the snow and his muscles screamed at being forced
to move. He climbed out of the hole and saw he was drenched in blood, Hemmy's
blood.
'What happened?' he whispered.
As he staggered towards the barn, he saw the morning sun was still an hour
from cresting the eastern horizon. His legs became wobbly and he leaned
against the barn, looking up to see the rear hay door still opened. He paused
a moment to get control over his frozen, stiff tegs, walked around to the
front, and looked at the large doors thrown open to the cold. He glanced down
at the snow before the door and saw no unusual number of footprints. But off
to the south side of the entrance, where snow remained uncleared, he saw a
single set of footprints and the parallel impression left by a sled's runners.
Someone had pulled the large sled out of the barn. The depth of the runner
tracks in the snow told him it was heavily loaded. The horses were long gone,
having been eaten by the Tsurani the winter before, so whoever had moved the
sled was pulling it.
Dirk went inside the barn and saw Mikia and Torren lying in each other's
arms, their throats cut. Old Litia also lay dead in her own blood, her eyes
open wide. Everywhere he looked, he saw death.
Who did this? Dirk wondered in panicked confusion. Had the Tsurani who
occupied Lord Paul's estate gone mad and killed everyone? But if they had,
there would have been footprints in abundance outside in the snow, and there