"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 01 - The Bronze Axe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

"Most clever," said Blade gravely. "Very sly, princess. So you watched your chance and seized a
sword and slew one of your guards. Yes. Clever indeed. There is just one thing that puzzles me a bit."
The path had widened now, the going was easier, and she was swinging along briskly by his side.
She cast him a sidelong look. "What puzzles you, Blade?"
 Blade kept his face expressionless. "It was a brave thing, a great thing, for a girl like you to kill a
warrior. I admit that. But how was it that you were alone with this guard? Was there onlyoneguard?
From the little you have told me of this Queen Beata she is no fool, so there must have been other
guards. Where were they?"
He saw her scowl and kept his glance averted. He wanted to laugh and dared not. For the past few
hours they had been getting on well and he did not want to spoil it.
Taleen was still frowning. "You ask too—many questions, Blade. And the wrong questions. What
business of yours is it that I—"
"None," he said hastily. "None at all, princess. Forget that I spoke."
For a minute or so they trudged on in silence. Then Taleen sighed heavily and said: "You are right, of
course. I think you must have been a wizard in your own land. Therewereother guards. But I selected
one that I judged weak, the weakest of all, and cozened him with certain promises. He was a handsome
rogue, and he knew it, and so believed me when I said that I desired him. He arranged for us to be alone,
for I swore that I would not do anything but in private. When were alone I suffered his embrace, but only
to get close to his sword, and then I killed him and ran. And found you sleeping by the brook. As naked
as you are now!"
She scowled again, her lips a red pout, and her luminescent brown eyes traced up and down his
brawny nakedness. "And I tell you this, Blade. Your bare hide now begins to offend me. There is just too
much of you!"
Her eyes fell and lingered on his genital area. She made a face and averted her eyes in what he knew
was a feigned disgust. "Get you some cover, Blade. I command it. I am sick of looking at you."
He raised the sword in mock salute. "Gladly, princess. Just where do I get it. You will perhaps
weave me a breechclout here and now, on the spot?"
The problem solved itself a moment later in a manner neither could have foreseen. They rounded a
narrow bend in the path and came upon an open field. It was a cultivated field, bordered by a crude
fence of piled stones, and just beyond the fence a man rushed at them with upraised sword.
Blade leaped before the girl, his own sword raised. "Keep back!"
She was first to laugh. Followed by Blade, who put his sword down and joined her, doubling over in
merriment. So ridiculous!
Yet, in the first shock of surprise, the scarecrow had looked human enough. The sword, of wood,
threatening enough.
Taleen was helpless now, holding her flat belly, her breasts shaking, as she pointed from Blade to the
scarecrow and then back again, powerless in the throes of peal after peal of manic laughter.
"You—you," she grasped, "tried to protect me from a scarecrow—"
Blade leaped the fence and tugged a pair of tattered linen breeches from the scarecrow. They fitted
well enough, though a bit tight around his powerful thighs. He went back to Taleen, pondering the odd
security that a man can derive from a simple pair of pants.
The sky was beginning to gray now, with a first hint of false dawn in the east. When the girl had
laughed herself out they resumed their way. Blade was thankful for the incident, and did not mind seeming
a buffoon. Her good humor was restored and she chattered like a magpie. Blade kept mostly silent, and
noted the changing nature of the countryside. They left the woods, crossed a vast expanse of wold, and
entered a region where cultivated fields were intersticed with fenland and marsh. As the true dawn came
on and the stars paled, Blade made out the blurred shapes of thatched cottages, all of them on stilts,
standing well back from the path. A drift of wood smoke, accompanied by the odor of cooking meat,
made his belly churn. Cattle and horses, evanescent against linear pearl light from the east, moved and
sounded as they made their way past. A goat trotted to a fence to give them a baleful inspection, then