"Lawrence Watt-Evans - Dus 3 - Sword Of Bheleu" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watt-Evans Lawrence)

drawn weapons at the dwindling crowds in the surrounding streets. Garth
laughed again, raised the sword, and swept it in an arc through the air;
wherever it pointed, flame erupted. In seconds every building around the
marketplace was ablaze. He strode forward into the square; behind him, the
mansion flared up suddenly. He turned and gestured with the sword; the Baron's
home was lost in a roaring curtain of flame. In moments it collapsed inward,
falling into its own cellars; behind it, through the flames, Garth could see
the King's Inn, where the so-called Forgotten King dwelt. He flung the fiery
might of the sword outward toward it, as he had toward the other structures,
but nothing happened. Again he tried, calling aloud, "I am Bheleu!"
The inn remained unharmed. He made a third and final attempt, willing
all the god's available power to flow along the blade and strike at this
resistance.
The tavern still remained untouched. Reluctantly, Garth gave up. He
turned back to the buildings around the square; those, at least, behaved
properly, flaring up like lit torches at his slightest whim. He laughed, and
marched out into the village, spreading fire and destruction, but his dark joy
was marred by his strange failure with the King's Inn.
The villagers scattered and hid before the onslaught of the overmen.
Most took refuge in their homes or in the ruins that ringed the village.. A
few fled into the wilderness beyond the walls. None managed to put up an
organized defense. Some found weapons; many barricaded their doors and
windows. None had the foresight and ability to gather the townsmen so that
their greater numbers could be of use against the overmen.
The overmen marched in small parties from door to door, smashing in
barricades and butchering those who resisted. Where the resistance was too
strong to be dealt with easily, warbeasts were called in. In all of Skelleth
the only weapons that might have been effective against the great hybrids were
buried in the burning ruins of the Baron's mansion. The animals served the
overmen as battering rams, as armor, and as instruments of terror.
The humans who surrendered were spared, in most cases, and taken
prisoner; the prisoners were gathered in the market square, guarded by four
overmen and four warbeasts. A few overmen were too full of bloodlust and fury
to restrain themselves, and some villagers were slain whether they surrendered
or not, but generally even those individuals calmed down after a single such
incident apiece.
Garth was the exception. As darkness descended, he strode laughing and
screaming through Skelleth, killing every human he saw, burning every building
he passed with the unnatural flames from the sword. Even the other overmen
kept well away from him. He needed no warbeast to batter down barricades; a
single blow from the sword shattered any defense set up against him. He seemed
to take delight in killing those who could not fight back; he left the
burning, dismembered corpses of women and children behind him.
It was full night when he came to one house where the door and shutters
had been reinforced with steel. He was unable to carry through his first
intention of burning his way in; when the wood had crumbled to ash, the metal
still held. With a cry of "I'a bheluye!" he struck at the steel with the
sword. Sparks showered, but the blade did not penetrate. He struck again, and
this time the door exploded inward in a shower of twisted fragments.
There was no one in the room beyond; he stepped in and looked about.