"Lars Walker - The Year of the Warrior" - читать интересную книгу автора (Walker Lars)

 THE YEAR OF THE




WARRIOR
LARS WALKER
THE YEAR OF THE WARRIOR

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or
incidents is purely coincidental.

Erling’s Word copyright © 1997; The Ghost of the God-Tree copyright © 2000, by Lars Walker.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Book

Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471

ISBN: 0-671-57861-8

Cover art by Gary Ruddell

First printing, March 2000



Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020


Typeset by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH
Printed in the United States of America
 CLASH BY NIGHT
The wind blew colder, and clouds rode in on it, shrouding the stars. The men sat back to back, sharing warmth. It
was as black as Judas’ grave.
There was one light in all the world.
It came towards us, over the meadow, from the direction of Thorolf Skjalg’s grave.
We all saw him. The warriors groaned. They wept. They yammered like dogs. Some shouted, “Thorolf! It’s my
Lord Thorolf come out to walk again.”
He was a tall man, dressed in full armor, with shield and spear and sword at his belt. He glowed all over with blue
fire. He was coming to us.
“It’s the battle-fetter!” someone cried. “Run! We’ve got to run!” But no one ran. No one stood on his feet. A few
tried to crawl, but most stayed in their places, watching the walker-again come nearer and nearer.
I could see Thorolf’s eyes now. They were green-yellow, round and cold.
Then a hand fell on my shoulder. Erling said, “A psalm, Father! I don’t ask you to fight, but sing me a psalm that I