"Gardner F. Fox - Kothar 01 - Kothar Barbarian Swordsman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fox Gardner F)

angry. I imagine you're full of life,

since you escaped from the plain of Dead Trees. I'll have to excuse you, I
suppose."

"Afgorkon said I was to help you."

"And you want to know how."

He swung his legs off the cot. "The sooner the better," he muttered. He
walked like a stalking cat across the room, lifted the sword Frostfire and
buckled its broad belt about his lean middle. In the eyes of the woman still
sitting on the cot, he was a pagan soldier, a mercenary who took her gold.
And yet, there was something more in this youthful giant, Elfa thought,
head cocked sideways to study him.

If she were younger—

She shook herself. It did no good to dream.

"You must free my wizard, Kazazael," she said suddenly, rising to pace
back and forth in the little hut.

Kothar snorted, "Little good he did you! Him and his magic spells that
didn't work! Where's he now?"

Her laughter tinkled out. Her fate was in the hands of a barbarian
youth, a boy only lately come to manhood. Afgorkon had said this was so,
and she believed the lich. Yet there was a bitterness in her mirth that rang
loudly in the hut. So much at stake, so much to rest on the swordhand of
one young man!

"You must go to Windmere Wood, where Kazazael hangs suspended in
the air between earth and sky—flayed of his skin by orders of King
Markoth. His screams of agony—for Kazazael cannot know the mercy of
death— can be heard for miles around. You must free him, restore his
health to him."

Kothar stared. "Dwallka! It's no easy task you set me."
 Elfa smiled up at him. "You can name your own reward, if you succeed.
Would you like to be a duke in Commoral? A prince?"

The Cumberian scowled. It was a heady bribe she offered, if bribe were
needed to win his swordarm.

"I shall make you a prince," she said softly.

"If I succeed," he growled.

Her golden head nodded gently. "If you win back for me my queenship.