"Tanya Huff - Death Rites" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

pillowed his head between her breasts, mouthed, "Quick nap?" then grinned at her expression.

They'd taken out a target, and that always left Ban-non a little giddy.

Vree jerked her head toward the gate. The night was nearly over.

There were four soldiers on guard.

They weren't expecting an attack from inside the fortress. Vree wondered what they thought when Ban-
non walked in through the arched door overlooking the courtyard although she supposed the first two
died too quickly to think anything. The third had her mouth open to cry warning, and the fourth actually
got a hand around his sword hilt.

Commander Zayit watched a burning rag drop from the barbican and extinguish itself on the road.
"Move them up," she said quietly to the Squad Leader beside her.

The order repeated itself, and the company crept forward. She could hear it creaking and rustling like a
huge beast rolling over in its sleep.

When the second flame dropped, she stepped out where she could be seen in the pale dawn light and
pulled her sword. "Now!"

"They're moving," Bannon announced, wiping oil off his fingers. "Good."

As Vree raised the inner gate, Bannon picked up a discarded crossbow. A rooster crowed.

Marshal Arnon rode into the fort when it was all over.

The traitors' bodies were stacked on one side of the courtyard, the dead of the Seventh Army on the
other. A bloody rag tied around one arm and a smear of blood not her own over the front of her armor,
Commander Zayit walked forward to meet him.

Vree braced the stiffening body of the guard against her shoulder and shuffled it forward. Still hidden
behind the edge of the arched doorway, she paused and her fingers tightened on unresisting flesh.

The sun had laid the shadow of the barbican across the courtyard crowned by the impossibly darker

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shadows of three ravens.

She met Bannon's gaze across the arch, and together they looked up.

The marshal's horse stopped at the edge of the ravens' shadow. Shied sideways when he spurred it, but
wouldn't go any farther.

In the moment between one heartbeat and the next, the ravens screamed.

Marshal Arnon turned, one hand raised to block the sun from his eyes.