"Stephen Lawhead - Pendragon Cycle 05 - Grail" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lawhead Stephen)

rain.' He turned a clear blue eye towards a sky just as clear and blue. 'Just
look at that, would you? Not a cloud anywhere - not a single cloud all
summer. It is uncanny, I tell you.' He drew a damp sleeve across his face.
'It is too hot to stand out here any longer. I am going back.'
He stalked off, leaving me to watch the labourers on the lake. The round
stones all along the shore were black where the moss had been blasted by
the sun - like skulls whose flesh had been burned to a dry crust. The
drought was, I reflected, exposing and killing much that was green and
tender. Only the tough and deep-rooted would survive. As with plants, so
with people.
Upon returning to camp, I discovered several more riders preparing to
leave. Bedwyr was sending word to the surrounding settlements. 'Never
fear, I have saved Urien's settlement for last, brother,' he informed me.
'That one will require a man of wisdom and judgment. That is why I am
sending you, Gwalchavad.'
'You are too kind.'
'As we are staying here,' Bedwyr said, 'we will let the chieftains and
headmen come to us. Why not? It saves us chasing all over Britain
bringing the bad news.'
'It saves some of us, perhaps.'
'Well,' said Bedwyr with a wry smile, 'a borrowed horse never tires.'
'What am I to tell them?'
'Ah, that is where your wisdom and judgment will be invaluable.'
First light the next morning, I called two of the younger warriors to
accompany me on my errand; they were raw, fresh-featured youths, one
named Tallaght, the other named Peredur. They were glad for a chance to
quit the coracles for a day or two, and we left as soon as the horses were
saddled, striking north and west, searching for the trail Bedwyr maintained
we would find, and which would lead us to Urien's fortress in the south
Rheged hills. As Bedwyr knew the land, I did not doubt him in the least,
but it seemed to me that we rode a long way before finding anything that
resembled the track he had described.
'Is this the trail, do you think?' wondered Tallaght doubtfully.
'We have seen no others,' I replied, looking at the narrow, overgrown track
- little more than a beaten path through thick bracken. 'It will serve until
we find another. Who knows? It may become more serviceable farther on.'
With that we rode on, eventually coming to a stand of birch trees - the
outriders, as it were, of the thickly forested hills farther on. As there was a
bit of grass showing green in the shade of these trees, I decided to stop and
let the horses graze a little before continuing on our way.
The wood was cool and it felt good to get out of the sun for a while. We
dismounted, refreshed ourselves from the waterskins, and then lay back in
the long grass to doze - an indulgence denied those enduring the swelter
and confusion of the lakeside.
It seemed as if I had just closed my eyes when Peredur nudged me. I came
awake with a start. 'Shh!' he warned, his face close to mine. 'Listen.'
There came a light, buoyant sound - such as the breeze might make of a
summer's evening, or a rill as it slips and splashes through the glen - but
the sound was made by a human voice, and I found it enchanting. Tallaght
and Peredur were sitting all hunch-shouldered, their faces tight and swords