"Brian Lumley - Necroscope 2 - Wamphyri!" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

'Now tell me how you dealt with the Pechenegi, Thibor of Wallachia,' Vladimir finally
commanded, when all were feasting. Their dishes were several: Greek sausages wrapped in vine
leaves; joints roasted in the Viking fashion; goulashes steaming in huge pots. Meads and wines came
by the gallon. All at table stabbed and speared with their knives at smoking meats; short bursts of
conversation would erupt now and then amidst the general clatter of eating. Thibor's voice, though
he hardly raised it at all, had carried over all of that. And gradually the great table had grown
quieter.


'The Pechenegi come in parties or tribes. They are not like a mighty army; there is little of
unity; they have their own chiefs who vie with each other. The earthworks and fortifications on the
Ros at the edge of the wooded steppe have stopped them because they are not united. If they
came as an army they could cross river and battlements both in a day, carrying all away before
them. But they merely probe around our defences, contenting themselves with whatever they can
pillage in short, sharp forays to east and west. This is how they sacked Kolomyya on the west flank.
They crossed the Prut by day, crept forward in the forests, rested overnight and attacked at first
light. It is their way. And so they gradually encroach.


'This is how I saw the situation: because the defences are there, our soldiers use them: we hide
behind them. The earthworks act as a border. We have been content to say, "South of these works
lies the territory of the Pechenegi, and we must keep him out." Wherefore the Pechenegi, barbarian
that he is, in fact holds us in siege! I have sat on the walls of our forts and seen our enemies make
camp, unafraid. Smoke from his fires goes up, all untroubled, because we don't molest him on "his"
ground.
 'When I left Kiev, Prince Vladimir, you said: "Fend off the Pechenegi, keep him from crossing
the Ros." But I said, "Pursue the fiend and kill him!" One day I saw a camp of some two hundred;
they had their women, even their children with them! They were camped across the river, to the
west, quite apart from the other encampments. I split my two hundred in half. Half went with me
across the river in the dusk. We stole up on the Pechenegi fires. They had guards out but most of
them were sleeping - and we cut their throats in the night without them ever knowing who killed
them! Then we set about the camp - but all in silence. I had daubed my men in mud. Any man not
daubed was Pechenegi. In the darkness we slew them, flitting from tent to tent. We were like great
bats in the night, and it was very bloody.


'When the camp was awakened half were already dead. The rest gave chase. We led them
back to the Ros; and them hounding us, eager to catch us at the river, all of them shouting and
screaming their warcries! But we shouted and screamed not at all. At the river, on the Pechenegi
side, my second hundred lay in waiting. They were daubed in mud. They struck not at their silent,
muddy brothers but trapped the howling pursuers. Then we rose up, turned in upon the Pechenegi,
slew them to a man. And we cut off their thumbs...' He paused.


'Bravo!' said Vladimir the prince, faintly.


'Another time,' Thibor continued, 'we went to Kamenets which was under siege. Again I had