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

reinforcements, she would turn and fight, she decided.
But in the next stride, pain shot up her leg and she crashed forward over a root. Somehow Jeneba
kept her wits enough to curl and use her momentum to roll into a somersault that carried her forward
back onto her feet with almost no break in stride. She forgot to hang on to the sword, though. It sailed
out of her hand and off into the brush.
"Buffalo, give me your strength and speed," she called. There could be no fighting now. She would
have to depend on outrunning her pursuers. If she could. The wachiru were so close now that she could
hear the rasp of their breathing.
Movement flashed on the edge of her vision. Jeneba dodged away. The wachiru followed her evasion,
however, and a thunderous heartbeat later pain ripped through Jeneba's scalp. The wachiru had caught
her by the hair. Shrieking, she jerked upward, off her feet. Worse pain followed. The wachiru turned
back toward the village without slowing. Pulled off balance, Jeneba dragged behind him. Pain lanced up
her nerves from skinned knees and palms. Still screaming, she clawed at the wrist and fingers wound in
the long cords of her hair, but his skin felt as impervious as bridle leather. He appeared unconscious of
her nails. His speed made it impossible for her to bring her feet under her, either. Her legs continued to
drag, the brush and stones tearing at them, while at every leap, her hair felt as though it were being jerked
out by the roots.
Ahead, his brother and sister wachiru whooped and gibbered. Visions of being strung up to await
dismemberment, never to see Kiba or the beautiful Sia Nyiba again, filled Jeneba with terror. Her mind
raced. There must be some way to break loose from the half-man. There must be! If only she could
regain her feet!
Feet. The word echoed in her heart. Gritting her teeth against the pain in her scalp, she twisted to take
a sight on the muscular leg moving ahead of her. Reaching out, she locked her fingers around the
wachiru's ankle.
He crashed full length to the ground. Before he or the others could react, Jeneba tore free from his
shock-loosened fingers and fled back into the woods. The wachiru whoops of triumph changed to furious
howls and the entire group bounded after Jeneba. But then another cry sounded, an animal scream,
answered by wachiru cries of dismay. Jeneba looked back to see a leopard crouched in the path behind
her, facing the half-men with bared fangs and lashing tail. The wachiru retreated toward their village.
Jeneba sagged gasping against a tree.
The leopard swung around to face her, blinking slowly. "That's twice I've saved you, sister."
"I'm not-" Jeneba stopped. "Twice?"
"The first time when the wachiru attacked."
"You didn't-" But in all fairness, she had to admit that of course he had... not giving her specifics of the
danger, perhaps, but certainly alerting her to its presence. "I thank you, leopard." She gulped air. "Why
did you?"
His tail twitched. "Balance. You risk your life to save those who refuse to accept you as fully one of
them, so Mala-Lesa asks that I intervene for a sister who does not acknowledge her kinship to me."
"Then I thank Mala-Lesa, too." Jeneba slid down the tree to sit on a root. "I hope Tomo escaped."
"If you were my sister," the leopard said, "I could tell you about Tomo."
A sudden cold washed through Jeneba. He had used that same tone before the wachiru attacked.
"What about Tomo?"
The leopard's eyes flared. "But you aren't my sister."
"I-" She almost choked on the words, but she reminded herself that she needed his knowledge,
however she had to obtain it. "I am your sister."
The leopard sniffed. "Words. Very well, though. Tomo Silla was never in danger. He remained by the
outer ring of huts and when he gave the alarm, imitating a wachiru call, he escaped into the woods before
anyone ever saw him."
Jeneba stared, shocked, then scowled in disbelief. "That's impossible!"
The leopard's tail lashed. "As you wish." He turned away.