"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 26 - City of the Living Dead" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

beaten drums echoing among the rocks. Then he heard the sound of many feet moving steadily.
 Blade scrambled down the slope toward the valley floor, keeping low and looking for a place where he
could see without being seen. He found it-a shallow depression in the ground, screened from the side by
two large boulders. He dropped flat and stared downslope just as the approaching men emerged out of
the mist eddying across the valley floor.

It was quite a procession-three hundred men at least, with two hundred animals and more than thirty
wagons, carts, and litters. As he got a better look at the party, Blade realized he'd better be particularly
on the alert. If this weren't a military expedition, he'd like to know what else to call it.

Ahead, behind, and on either flank rode forty men mounted on almost comically misshapen beasts. They
looked as though someone had started to draw a horse but got so drunk while doing it that the rear end
came out very different from the front.

The head could have belonged to a horse, except for the enormous protruding ears. The forelegs were
double-jointed and ended in three sharp-clawed toes, and the body was thinner than any horse could
ever be without starving to death. The hind legs looked as if they might have been borrowed from a
kangaroo, long, heavy-boned, and immensely muscular, with sharp, jutting spurs. The creature trailed off
into six feet of flattened tail, ending in a mass of bone. Blade noticed that the tails were strapped tightly in
place. Doubtless they were unstrapped in battle, so the beasts could use them as weapons.

The creatures were dark green with irregular patterns of grayish-brown stripes, except for white tails and
ears. They might look ludicrous, but Blade suspected they would be unpleasantly formidable opponents
in battle.

The riders wore chain mail shirts over broad-skirted leather coats and plate leg armor over blue leather
trousers. They wore high-crested helmets with jointed cheek-pieces, and all were bearded. All of them
had a shield and a light ten-foot lance, and either two swords or a sword and a vicious-looking
double-bladed axe with a four-foot handle. The weapons and armor looked well worn, and the men
themselves were tanned, scarred, and relaxed in their saddles. They had the stamp of veterans all over
them.

So did the men marching on foot. There were about a hundred of them, in two lines. They were dressed
like the cavalry, except for the leg armor. All of them carried sword and shield. About half carried bows
and quivers, while the other half carried long matchlock muskets and powder horns.

Between the two lines of infantry was a mixed column of men, beasts, and vehicles. There were five
small cannon on crude mountings, no more than blocks of wood with wheels attached. There were a
score of ox-carts, some piled high with canvas-covered sacks and chests, others rattling along empty.
There was a pair of four-wheeled wagons covered with embroidered red curtains. Blade heard female
voices and laughter coming from behind the curtains. There were two more low-slung wagons, each
carrying four barred wooden cages. Blade heard a hissing sound as the two wagonloads of cages rattled
past and thought he smelled a faint animal musk.

In the middle of everything was a palanquin curtained with gilded leather and decorated with floral
designs in silver picked out with jewels. In front a pole supported a long banner, pale green, showing a
black claw holding a burning torch. Eight heavily muscles bearers carried the palanquin. Except for
shoulder pads, loincloths, boots, and ankle chains, they were naked. Two more eight-man bearer teams
marched behind the palanquin, under the guard of a dozen soldiers wearing blue-lacquered helmets and
silvered mail.