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

She scrambled to her feet after him. "Why would Tomo warn the Wachiru?"
The leopard peered back over his shoulder. "He couldn't let you free the warriors. They were the
price for his life."
The price-- Remembering her own panicked thought about trying to bargain with the wachiru to
release her, understanding came with the force of a blow in the stomach. "Tomo met a wachiru when he
was scouting for the campsite and lost the wrestling match."
"Yes," the leopard said. "But he offered an exchange for his life."
She hissed. Remembering how she felt when the wachiru was dragging her back to the village, she
could understand what kind of terror drove him to the bargain, but outrage still boiled up in her. "He gave
them us!" No wonder she had smelled fear on him when she insisted on going to the rescue. "Where is he
now?"
"Waiting in a tree for morning."
Waiting to set out for Kiba and report how everyone but him had been tragically lost, no doubt. She
bared her teeth. As soon as they were home, she would challenge him to combat.
Jeneba retraced the path of her previous flight until she found her sword, then headed for the village
again.
The leopard followed. "Do you still believe you can rescue your people?"
"I have to try."
At the edge of village she hesitated, however, sucking in her cheeks in dismay. The half-men now had
guards around their captives.
The leopard blinked. "If you were truly my sister, I could tell you how to save them."
She whirled. "How, brother?"
His eyes glowed. "Would you call me that if you didn't need me?"
Guilt spread heat up her face. "Probably not."
The leopard sighed. "You're honest anyway. I give you this much, then. The sword is no use. The
warriors must be won as they were lost. You may prevail if you can find that in you which your father
gave and use a thing born of Mala-Lesa, who sees wachiru when men cannot."
With a final lash of his tail, he vanished into the darkness, leaving Jeneba staring in dismay. The leopard
advised in riddles!
Part of the answer was obvious. Winning the warriors as they had been lost meant by wrestling. She
grimaced. Win at wrestling, when Tomo, stronger and more experienced than she, had lost. That in her
that her father had given must mean her spirit, but how could she find any more of it? What, too, was
this thing born of Mala-Lesa? Since the High God had created the entire world, that could be anything.
How could she use it in wrestling, anyway?
Shrieks of wachiru glee mixed with human protests jerked her attention back to the village. She
instantly forgot the leopard riddles. The half-men had discovered Mseluku's severed bonds and were
dragging him toward the place in the center where earlier they had butchered the dead warriors. A
wachiru man waited with one of the captured knives.
"Uncle!"
The cry echoed through her head but she was not aware of screaming it, or of moving, until she found
herself charging across the common toward the group holding Mseluku. As reason reasserted itself, she
stumbled and froze. Around her, shock paralyzed the wachiru, too, but that would not last long. Even
now their mouths opened to cry in warning and their hands spread into claws. The half-man with the knife
raised it over Mseluku's chest.
The sword was useless, the leopard had said. Jeneba dropped hers, then spoke loudly in Burda, the
trade language. "It is the custom for wachiru to challenge men to wrestle. Now a man comes to challenge
the wachiru."
"No," Mseluku gasped in their own language, Dase.
Wachiru eyes glittered in the moonlight. "To wrestle?" The speaker's voice rang deep and hollow, as
though coming from a cave.