"Christopher Stasheff - Rogue Wizard 04 - A Wizard In War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

A Wizard In WarA Wizard In War
The Third Chronicle of Magnus D'Armand, Rogue Wizard
By Christophr Stasheff
ISBN: 0-812-53649-5


1
Dicea didn't hear the knight approaching until it was too late-even though he
was laughing and joking with his men-at arms-so she was tardy turning her face
to the wall, and the knight espied her. "Hola! Come here, pretty lass!" he
cried, but Dicea shrank away, eyes wide. "Fetch her, Barl," he ordered one of
his men, and the soldier came, grinning and reaching out for Dicea, who cried
out and tried to push herself back into the wall, forearms up to shield her
torso, face down in her fists.
Anger tore through her brother, Coll. He jumped between Dicea and the soldier
and cracked a fist into his jaw. The man gave one surprised grunt-after all,
serfs never fought back-and slumped, eyes rolling up.
The knight turned scarlet on the instant and shouted, "Kill him!" He, too, knew
that serfs couldn't be allowed to fight back.
Four soldiers came at Coll. Panic seized him; he knew his only chance was to
kill them first. He leaped on the foremost soldier and swung high, but the
soldier was ready to block now, so Coll kicked his feet out from under him and
seized his spear as he fell, twisting it from his grasp. He slashed with it at
the soldiers. They leaped back in surprise and caution, knowing what that honed
edge could do and how little use leather armor might be against it. Then they
reddened and shouted, but Coll had just time enough to stab downward and kill
the fallen soldier.
The knight shouted in rage, and his men echoed him, charging. Coll leaped to
meet them, parrying the thrust of the soldier on the right, then stabbing him in
the belly, just as though his spear were the butt of a quarterstaff. Serfs
weren't supposed to know how to fight with staves, but Coll and a few friends
had practiced in secret. Now he turned on the middle soldier, stabbing upward.
The man parried, beating Coll's spear down-and Coll leaped in and cracked a fist
into his chin.
The knight bellowed in anger as he saw a third man fall and spurred his horse.
The charger surged forward; Coll barely managed to sidestep in time, and the
rest of the soldiers came at his back.
"Behind you!" Dicea called, and Con turned just in time to dodge their charge,
then slash at one of them with his spear. The knight turned his horse and came
charging back, blood in his eye, intent on running Coll down.
"Flee!" his sister cried, tears in her eyes. "Oh, Coll, flee!"
Every cell in his body screamed to stay and fight, but the knight was slashing
down with his sword, and sense forced its way through the haze of Colt's rage.
He leaped aside at the last second, then dodged between the peasant huts. The
knight swerved to follow him, and ragged serfs stopped watching the spectacle to
scramble for cover. But Coll ran a zigzag route between huts, then sprinted
madly over the patch of cleared ground between the village and the woods,
hearing the hooves of doom pound closer and closer behind him, imagining he
could feel the charger's hot breath on his neck. He made it into the woods ten
feet ahead of the horse, though and dodged and twisted among the trees, knowing