"Julia Gray - Guardian 04 - The Red Glacier" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gray Julia)

the headland, and shuddered to think what might have happened if he'd tried to
come ashore in such conditions.
Renewed shouting brought his attention back to the soldiers. For the first
time, Terrel was able to see how the battle was being fought. It was difficult
to tell how many men were involved, but both sides seemed to be operating with
groups of archers to the rear, who provided some protection for the advancing
patrols of foot soldiers. These troops were continuously manoeuvring for
position, making use of what cover the terrain provided, sheltering behind
outcrops of rock and drifts of snow, or in the deeper gullies and hollows.
Most of the fighting came in short but bloody skirmishes between these
patrols, before one side or the other retreated, allowing their archers to
fire on the enemy forces left behind.
Even from a distance, Terrel could tell that the conflict was in deadly
earnest. He had seen some terrible things during his travels, but little to
match the savagery of this encounter. The field was already littered with the
bodies of the dead and dying, and it was clear that neither side was
showing any mercy. No prisoners were being taken; the wounded were butchered
where they lay.
The appalling carnage was already making Terrel feel sick, but what happened
next left him not only horrified but also astonished. Out of nowhere a
swirling dark cloud appeared, low over the battlefield and growing in size by
the moment. By rights it should never have been able to form in such
conditions, and even if it had, the strong wind now racing across the headland
should have either dispersed the sudden mist or blown it away completely. But
neither of these things happened. The cloud moved back and forth over the
combatants, writhing as though caught in a vortex of several opposing gusts of
wind, but never moving very far one way or another. What was more, within its
churning shadows a strange light began to flicker, and the air all around it
began to hum and crackle. As Terrel felt the hairs on the back of his neck
stand on end, he realized what must be coming next. Flashes of lightning burst
from the cloud, each accompanied by a deafening concussion. The strikes were
obviously directed at a group of soldiers, and Terrel watched in horror as the
men were smashed to the ground in blackened heaps or thrown into the air by
the impact. He could hardly believe that such a primeval force could have been
used for a deliberate attack, but that was the only possible conclusion.
Almost immediately, a second salvo of lightning leapt from the cloud, but this
time it never reached its intended target. Instead of hitting the ground, the
lightning fragmented, apparently deflected by some sort of invisible shield
surrounding the forces under attack. This took the form of a pyramid that
shimmered briefly with each bolt of fire, then vanished again.
Terrel had no idea what was going on. The use of such weapons — and the
defences used against them — was quite
beyond his understanding, though he couldn't help think-ing of the much bigger
magical dome that the sharaken had built over the palace in Talazoria, and of
the murderous chaos that had reigned within. What he was watching now was also
clearly the province of sorcerers, which made the nature of the battle even
more horrifying.
After some time the cloud began to break up, and finally it drifted away on
the wind, its unnatural potency clearly exhausted, but the fighting was far
from over. The various advances and retreats continued, interspersed with