"Norton, Andre - No night without stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Andre Norton)

their own. But to Sander they had always seemed more like the eyes of strange,
ever-aloof creatures, who watched the short lives of men with more indifference
than interest. He tried to think about the star eyes, but his mind kept
returning to the horrors of the raided village. What would it be like, he
wondered with a shiver, to be suddenly set upon by men out of the sea who wanted
to slay, to destroy, to dip their hands in blood?
[02]
The Mob had fought for their lives, but only once, in Sander's memory, against
their kind. That had been when a terrifying people of light skin and wild pale
eyes had come down to raid their herd. Mainly their struggle was against cold
and famine and sickness for themselves or their animals, warring against a hard
land rather than mankind. Their smiths forged the weapons and the tools for that
struggle, not many of the kind meant to drink man-blood.
Sander had heard tales of the sea slavers. Sometimes he had thought that those,
too, were inventions of the Traders, who created fearsome horrors to fill the
land they did not want others to explore. For the Traders were notoriously
tight-fisted when it came to their own profits. But after this day he could
believe that man was more ruthless than even a full winter storm. Now he
shivered a little, not from the touch of the sea breeze, but because of what his
imagination suggested might exist in this wilderness so unknown to him.
Sander put out a hand for the reassuring touch of Rhin's hairy hide. At the same
moment the koyot leaped to his feet. Sander heard a warning growl. Rhin faced
not the sea, but inland. It was plain that the animal had decided that there was
indeed a menace slinking through the night.
With so little visibility, the dart thrower was no good. Sander drew his long


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belt knife, which was in reality a short sword. He crouched upon one knee, the
rocks a firm wall at his back, and listened. There seemed to be a slight
shuffling ahead. Rhin growled again. Now Sander caught a trace of musky odor. He
thought he had seen a shadow, moving so swiftly that there was but a suggestion
of a shape, out there.
A hissing out of the dark became a loud snarl. Rhin advanced a step,
stiff-legged, plainly alert against attack. Sander desperately regretted the
fire he had not lit. To face such an unknown menace kindled one of the age-old
fears of his own race.
Yet the thing did not attack as Sander expected it to do. He heard that
challenging hiss, and he gathered from Rhin's reaction that the koyot thought
this unknown to be a formidable opponent. Still, whatever it was stayed beyond
the boundaries where Sander might sight it against the lighter rocks. There came
a shrill whistle out of the night, followed by a flash of light, which shone
straight into Sander's eyes, dazzling him, though he flung up his arm in an
involuntary gesture to ward off the blinding glare.
Under the shadow of his hand he watched an animal glide forward, a sinuous body
seeming to him more that of a snake than of a furred species. It arose upon its
haunches, still hissing, until its head was nearly level with his own. Behind it
a smaller edition of itself, much darker in color, hugged the ground. It was