"David Gemmell - Morningstar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gemmel David)

were a grotesque bunch, ugly and filthy, dressed in greasy rags. Fight them? I would have
given all I had not to touch them.

One of them drew a dagger and advanced towards me, grunting out some kind of
enquiry. The language he used was as foul as his look. The strangest thoughts come to a
man in danger, or so I have found. Here was a man with no regard for his appearance. His
face and clothes were filthy, his teeth blackened and rotting, yet his dagger was sharp
and bright and clean. What is it that makes a man take more care of a piece of iron than
his own body?

'I am a bard,' I said.

He nodded sagely and then bade me go away, using language I would not dream of
repeating.

'Step away from the lady, if you please,' I told them. 'Otherwise I shall call the
Watch.’ There was some laughter at this and two of the other three advanced upon me. One
sported a hook such as is used to hang meat, while the second held two lengths of wood
with a wire stretched between them. The last of them remained with the girl, holding her
by throat and hair.

I had no choice but to run - and I would have done so. But fear had frozen my
limbs, and I stood like a sacrificial goat waiting for the knife and the hook and the
wicked throat wire.

Suddenly a man leapt from the balcony above to land in their midst, sending two of
them sprawling. The one on his feet, he of the meat-hook, swung his weapon at the
newcomer, who swayed aside and lashed out with a sword-belt he was holding in his left
hand. The buckle caught the man high on the left cheek, spinning him from his feet. It
was then that I saw that the newcomer was wearing only one boot and was carrying his
sword-belt in his hand. Hurling aside his scabbard he drew his blade, lancing it through
the neck of his nearest foe. But the first of the villains I had seen rose up behind the
newcomer.

'Look out!' I cried. Our unknown helper spun on his heel, his sword plunging into
the chest of his opponent. I was behind the man, and I saw the blade emerge from his
back; he gave a strangled scream and his knees buckled. The warrior desperately tried to
tear his sword loose from the man's chest, but it was stuck fast. The rogue with the
throat-wire leapt upon the newcomer's back, but before he could twist the wire round his
intended victim's throat he ducked and twisted, hurling his attacker into a wall. As the
villain rose groggily the newcomer took two running steps, then launched himself through
the air feet first, his one boot cracking against the base of the man's neck and
propelling his face into the wall. There was a sickening thud, followed instantly by the
crunching of bones. The sound was nauseating, and my stomach turned. The last of the
villains loosed his hold on the girl, throwing her to the ground and sprinting away into
the shadows. As the girl fell she struck her head on the cobbles. I ran to her, lifting
her gently, She moaned. 'You bastard! I'll see you dead! You'll not escape me!' shouted a
voice from an upper window. I glanced up to see a bearded man upon the balcony. He was
hurling abuse at the newcomer. It did not seem to perturb the fellow. Swiftly he wrested
his sword clear of the corpse, then gathered his second boot which was lying some