"Lee Killough - The Leopard's Daughter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Killough Lee)

campsite
Children, naked, and women, bare to the waist like their men, chattered excitedly as they bound the
legs and arms of warriors. The few that they left unbound lay with the slackness of death. That explained
why Jeneba still lived. Dead victims must be eaten quickly and the wachiru wanted to save some meat for
another day. She shuddered at the thought of herself spitted and roasting.
The wachiru had not reached this end of the camp yet, judging by her still-free hands. Was anyone
watching her? Jeneba saw no one. There was only one way to be certain. Taking a deep breath and
praying to the buffalo for safety, Jeneba wiggled backward, dragging her sword and head. No one
appeared to notice. She kept moving, edging gradually around the tree.
She had almost reached cover when a female voice cried in alarm. Jeneba jumped to her feet, but
realized in one sickening instant that she was too dizzy to run. She caught at the tree, her mind racing in
panic, searching for an escape.
Tree? She looked up, mind clearing. Wachiru could not climb. Perhaps they would not think of her
doing so.
Clamping her sword in her teeth, Jeneba scrambled for the branches.
Mala-Lesa and the buffalo smiled. While she crouched in a fork clutching her sword and the
slice-of-horn talisman around her neck, her heart drumming in fear, the wachiru milled around the bottom
of the tree sniffing the ground and air... but they never looked up, and after a short search, returned to
tying their captives. Finishing that, they started off through the woods, carrying the bound warriors.
Above them, Jeneba counted the casualties through teeth gritted in sorrow and anger. Kinetu hung
over a half-woman's shoulder, blood dripping down her back from his smashed skull. Half a dozen other
warrior brothers and sisters were dead, too. The side of Jeneba's skull throbbed in reminder of how
easily she could be among them. Mseluku lived, however. Jeneba heard him groan as his captors carried
him under her.
She bared her teeth. "Mala, guide me to vengeance," she whispered at the silver disc of moon rising
over the far shore of the lake. "Buffalo, give me your strength and wiles."
The last half-man passed Jeneba's tree. She waited a while longer, then cautiously slid to the ground,
never letting her eyes leave the bobbing light of the torches disappearing into the woods.
"Jeneba!" Her heart leaped at the startled exclamation behind her. She spun, sword in hand and
arcing... but turned the blow aside to grin at the familiar figure standing in the campsite clearing with
moonlight pouring over him. Her spirit soared in relief. "Tomo Silla! Thank the gods and buffalo someone
else escaped, too. Come on; let's go before they're too far ahead."
Tomo sucked in his breath sharply and caught her wrist. "Two of us alone can't rescue Mseluku and
the others. Find the horses and we'll ride to Kiba for help."
"Leave our people for two days?" She stared at him in disbelief. "Why aren't two enough? We're
Dasa."
"I'm Dasa."
The words pierced like a spear. Jeneba recoiled from Tomo, snapping her wrist free of his grip. "I'm
Dasa, too," she hissed, "and I won't leave my uncle or any of our people for the wachiru to eat!"
Tomo frowned. "They'll be safe for a while. The dead will be eaten first."
She might have been reassured if she had not smelled the acid reek of fear on him. The beads in her
hair rattled as she flung her head. "Are you sure enough to stand beside me when I face my mother and
aunts and grandmother and promise them for me that their son and brother will still be alive when we
return here?"
"Do you really want to rescue our people," he said, "or do you only want the glory of the deed?
Heroic effort won't prove you're as brave as a true-blooded Dasa or cause the bards to make songs
about you. Perhaps you can escape the demons and spirits roaming the night, dark being your father's
element, but you can't defeat that many wachiru. You'll only become an object lesson in false pride, the
warrior who cost an entire army its life."
An animal snarled in Jeneba. She longed to spring at Tomo with her sword. She fled instead, bolting