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

he watched.
Dragons, it was said, breathed fire. Garth had never taken that aspect
of the monster's description very seriously; legends tended to be distorted in
the retelling. Still, there was general agreement that much of a dragon's
destructiveness resulted from fires. Garth had assumed heretofore that the
creatures might produce some sort of highly combustible substance, a venom or
vapor, perhaps.
If they actually did produce flame, however, then the smoke he now saw
might be coming from the monster.
Of course, it could also be coming from village cook fires and hearths,
but he saw no sign of a town in that direction-no temple spires or roofs above
the treetops. If there were a village, though, perhaps the people would be
able to direct him to the monster's current location.
He pointed toward the smoke and called a command to his mount. With a
growl, the warbeast turned off the road and began running cross-country toward
the thickening column.
Koros' normal pace was almost unnaturally smooth and silent, far more
comfortable for its rider than that of any other mount Garth had ever ridden;
but when running, even though it was loping along well below its full top
speed, Koros bounded up and down in such a manner that Garth was forced to
cling precariously to its harness, rather than risk being thrown.
The beast's long strides ate up the distance, carrying the. overman over
farmland and meadow with phenomenal speed. Animal and rider passed through an
orchard, then a patch of pine forest, then out into a new stretch of meadow.
Beneath them, the ground began to slope upward, and Garth saw that the smoke
was rising from just beyond the crest of a grassy hillock.
If he were to ride on directly over that rise, he realized, he might
find himself face to face with the dragon without any time to prepare; the
monster could easily be lurking in ambush.
He called a command, and Koros came to a sudden stop. Garth gathered
himself together and looked at what lay before him.
He was on an open expanse of grassland, unfarmed and apparently wild;
ahead, the land rose into a sort of mound, and the smoke behind it streamed
upward in a single thick column. It did not look like the dispersed traces of
smoke from a village or the thin mark from a farmhouse chimney. Some farmer
might be burning debris, or a cremation might be under way, but Garth thought
that caution was called for in any further approach.
Beyond the rise, the ground sloped downward again, into a riverbank; he
could not see the stream itself, but the broad cut into the earth that
extended in either direction beyond the hillock could be nothing else.
The nearest cover was a patch of forest that he had passed through on
his approach; it lay a hundred yards behind him.
He had, he judged, four choices. He could head on directly over the
mound, he could circle it to the northwest, he could circle to the southeast,
or he could retreat into the woods.
He glanced down at the warbeast's harness, making sure it hadn't been
loosened by the fast ride he had just finished, and considered. Remaining
where he was did not seem prudent; he was out in the open, an ideal target. If
he advanced, he did not know what he might be facing. If he retreated, the
dragon might depart-assuming it was there at all.