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

'Plainly the Boyar has seen that you have something to convey, but how will he know what it is?'


'He will know,' said the gypsy. He grasped Thibor's arm, stared up into the high passes. A
glaze came suddenly over the old man's eyes and he swayed. Thibor held him up. And:


'There, now he knows,' the old man whispered. The film went from his wide eyes.


'What?' Thibor was puzzled; he felt troubled. The Szgany were queer folk with
little-understood powers. 'What do you mean when you say - '


'And now he will answer "yes" - or "no",' the gypsy cut him off. Even as he finished speaking
there came a single, searing beam of light from the high castle, which in the next moment died away.


'Ah!' the old gypsy sighed. 'And his answer is "yes", he will see you.'


'When?' Thibor accepted the strangeness of it, fought down the eagerness in his voice.


'Now. We set off at once. The mountains are dangerous at night, but he'll have it no other
way. Are you still game?'


'I'll not disappoint him, now that he's invited me,' said Thibor.


'Very well. But wrap yourself well, Wallach. It gets cold up there.' The old man fixed him with
a brief, bright, penetrating stare. 'Aye, cold as death...'


Thibor chose a pair of burly Wallachs to accompany him. Most of his men were out of his old
homeland, but he'd personally stood alongside these two in his war with the Pechenegi, and he
knew they were fierce fighters. He wanted real men at his back when he went up against this
Ferenczy. And it could well be that he'd need them. Arvos, the old gypsy, had said the Boyar had
no retainers; who, then, had answered the mirror signal? No, Thibor couldn't see a rich man living
up there all alone with a mere woman or two, fetching and carrying for himself. Old Arvos lied.


In the event that there was only a handful of men up in the mountains with their master... But it
was no good speculating, Thibor would have to wait and see what were the odds. If there were
many men, however, then he would say that he came as an envoy of Vladimir, to invite the Boyar to
the palace in Kiev. It would be in connection with the war against the Pechenegi. Either way, his
course was now set: he had a mountain to climb, and at the top a man to kill, depending on
conditions.