"Lawrence Watt-Evans - Dus 4 - Book of Silence" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watt-Evans Lawrence)

tinkers and craftsmen how to make flying toys, and they've done them just as I
do, but theirs don't fly at all, they just fall."
Garth reached out, took the gull from the toymaker's hands, and turned
it over, studying it. "Magic or not, it's a beautiful thing," he said.
"Yes, it is," the toymaker agreed.
"Do you wish to sell it?"
"Of course; I have no use for it. Besides, I have others and I can
always make more. Would you like it?"
"Yes, I think I would; it's a wondrous device, whether clockwork or
magic. What is your price?"
The man named a figure; Garth declined politely. After a brief and mild
bout of bargaining, a price was settled upon as fair to both parties.
"Will you take it with you now, then?" the toymaker asked.
"No," Garth answered, handing it back, "I think not. I am seeking after
the dragon at present; were I to take the gull, I fear that it might be broken
in the fight. I will stop here and buy it on my way back, at the price agreed
upon, if that will suit you." After a second's pause, he added, "Assuming, of
course, that I come back; the stories I have heard of the dragon imply that I
may not."
"The dragon?" Surprise and concern were plain in the toymaker's face.
"You've come to slay the dragon? Oh, dear. That's most unfortunate."
"Is it?" Garth asked as he moved to mount his warbeast. "It may prove
unfortunate for the dragon; it has never faced an overman before."
"Well, that's true," the old man admitted, "but still..." He fell into a
confused silence and stood watching, the metal bird in his hands, as Garth
rode on past him and out of the village.


CHAPTER FOUR
Garth rode for an hour through peaceful groves and flourishing farmland; on
all sides, blossoms were giving way to budding fruit and grain, and it was
obvious that, barring some disaster, there would be an abundant harvest at
summer's end. He could still see no sign anywhere of a dragon or a dragon's
depredations. He did see, to his surprise, recent footprints, all human, on
the road he followed; they were wide-spaced, as if the men who made them had
been hurrying. They all seemed to run westward, the same direction in which
Garth was bound. He wondered if the makers of the marks had been fleeing from
the dragon. The villagers had seemed quite certain that it was awake and
active and somewhere west of the town; perhaps they had seen it pursuing some
of their countrymen along this highway.
There was no trace of the dragon itself, however. Garth scanned the
horizon.
To the north and east, he saw nothing but trees. To the south, a few
clouds hung in the sky above green fields. To the west, the hills reared up
before him; the valley was narrow at this, its northern end, and he had
already crossed half its width.
To the southwest, a thin trail of smoke was curling upward, blue smoke
almost invisible against the blue of the sky.
He signaled Koros to stop, to allow him a better view; the warbeast
obeyed, and Garth stared at the faint wisp. It seemed to be growing thicker as