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

seemed to move with the wind currents. Kothar liked the free, clean air of
beach and forest; not for him this dank noxiousness.

He was annoyed, too, by an odd sound as he moved lightly across the
great submarine den. At first he thought the sucking sound might be the
sea itself, filling and emptying some stone cavity or other. But this he was
inclined to discount, now.

The noise was too steady, and it was growing louder.

He walked on hard gravel that ground underfoot like pebbles. He
glanced down, seeing a white scattering of thousands of tiny shells. No,
these were not shells. They were—bones! Human bones!

Kothar shook himself,, anger at his confrontation with the unknown
rumbling in his thick throat. He did not like the unknown, it made him
uneasy. Give him a foe with a face to battle and a weapon to match, and
Kothar was at ease with the world. These powdered bones were no part of
any foe he could discover.

The bones cracked underfoot as he walked on into the next cavern, a
great dark chamber filled with that same blue radiance. Squinting into
the blackness, he made out big oaken chests bound with iron. Kothar
grinned, showing even white teeth.

What was it Afgorkon had said? He who carries Frostfire must own
nothing else? By Dwallka! These wooden boxes had the look of treasure
chests.

He moved toward them, peered through the dim blue light at them. No
doubt about it. He lifted a dagger from his belt, pried at a rusted lock. A
bulge of forearm muscles, a bending steel blade and—spaaang! The lock to
the first chest came loose.

Kothar gripped the chest lid and heaved.

"By Elwys' golden breasts!" he panted.

He stared at jewels as big as hen's eggs—diamonds, rubies, sapphires,
emeralds—at ropes of golden links—at pearls the size of small clams—at
the loot of uncounted centuries. His eyes grew big. His huge hands
reached out—

There it was again—that noise!

Kothar turned his head.

"Gods of Thuum!"

A huge worm—white as a bleached sea shell, huge as Gargantos, as