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

In the light of early morning, Kothar woke to the pains of an empty
belly. He lay a while with his eyes closed, dreaming of the dishes he had
eaten in the past until the pounding of the sea waves roused him to a
realization that food, for a man who knew the shoreline, lay not far away.

With the tip of his sword he dug up clams from the shingle and caught
half a dozen crabs. With flint and the Steel of Frostfire he made a flame of
driftwood breakings and cooked his crabs while he wolfed down the raw
clams. In a little while he was rid of his hunger and he stretched in the
sunlight and watched the black rocks appear on the ocean floor as the tide
ran out away from the land. His hand loosed Frostfire in its scabbard.
Beyond the line of black rocks, according to the wizard Kazazael, was the
lair of the sea serpent Iormungar.

He waited patiently as the tide ebbed away. Then he set his feet along
the coarse detritus of the shore and outward toward the rocks. His leather
boots slipped a little on the rocks, they were still wet and hung with
seaweeds, but he was used to the sea and he ran lightly across a line of
spray-wet rocks until he stood on the very last rock of all and stared
downward into a large hole where the water foamed and gurgled as it
came and went.

He must go down into that hole, if he was to find the cloak. Kothar
grimaced, being without appetite for a swim in these cold waters. Even as
he wondered how he was going to get back up out of the hole, he stepped
off the rock and plunged into the freezing waters like a stone.

Coldness caught at him, ate through his boots and mail shirt and
leather hacqueton under it, stabbed his legs and arms and middle. He
went down slowly through the black waters, for the to-and-fro rush of the
sea buoyed him up even as he fell, so that he landed on a stone ledge that
formed the outer lip of a vast sea cavern that stretched away behind him
into darkness. A radiance came from the rocks and gave off a bluish light.

There was fresh air here, and no water except a few drops that had
come into this place with him as he had ridden the submerged waterfall to
the cavern edge. He wondered who had found this waterfall—it was
invisible from the shore and had it not been for Kazazael, he would have
passed it by without a glance. From the falling waters he turned his gaze
to the smooth stone walls and floor of the bluish cavern.

This place was like no sea cavern he had ever seen. He saw now that the
blue light came from glistening streakings on the wet walls of the cavern,
as if some playful giant had dipped his fingers in blue fire and drawn their
tips across those stone barriers.

Kothar began walking forward lightly, treading as might a panther on
the prowl, pulling his swordbelt around in front of him so the golden hilt
of Frostfire was in finger reach. His massive shoulders moved in a
shrugging motion; the air of the cavern was foul and fetid; a rank stench