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

He watched it wheel about, and an idea struck him. The thing was
gigantic, and as it made the far part of its turn, he glimpsed its broad,
smooth back, as wide and solid as the deck of a ship. If he could get atop it,
he could hack at it at his leisure; with its limited aerodynamic ability, it
might be unable to dislodge him. He had used a similar technique against a
monster once before, the great worm that lived beneath Dûsarra; though that
particular creature had not had the benefits of flight, flame, and armor.
The difficulty lay in getting onto the thing, but even that might not be
impossible. He looked down at Koros' blackfurred back, shoulder muscles
rippling under its hide as it shifted its stance. He had seen the warbeast
leap to and from low rooftops, and bound over crowds of humans. It could
almost certainly manage the jump he wanted.
Of course, he was not at all certain that he himself could manage his
part of the feat he planned, but if he did not, it would probably mean nothing
worse than a long fall. He could take a fall. He could see little to be lost
by trying; the dragon could slay him just as easily if he did not make the
attempt.
The dragon still circled smoothly in the sky above the mound; he turned
the warbeast toward it and gave the command to charge.
Koros roared, so loudly that Garth's ears rang, and began bounding up
the slope. Seeing this, the dragon turned and came to meet the overman and
warbeast, bellowing and screaming and smoking like a burning city. As they
drew nearer to one another, Garth gauged the distance carefully and, when he
judged the moment to be right, shouted the command to leap.
Koros leaped, jaws wide and claws out, to attack the dragon; the
warbeast was roaring with bloodlust. Garth felt the leap as a great surge
upward; so smooth was the movement that he hardly realized when Koros left the
ground. As the dragon loomed up before him, a gleaming coppery wall, he leaped
himself, flinging himself upward from the saddle to grab at the monster's
neck.
He struck hard against a shining red-gold flank and clung desperately,
digging fingernails into the overlapping of the scales and scrambling upward
with his feet.
His faithful mount, thrown off course by his own jump, hit the dragon
full in the chest, then fell away, yowling with pain and anger, as its fangs
and claws failed to penetrate and grip the gleaming armor.
Garth watched, concerned, as the warbeast fell. When Koros landed,
catlike, on all fours and rose, apparently unhurt, Garth turned his attention
back to his own situation with great relief.
He had a precarious purchase on the monster's shoulder, the wind
whipping about him as the dragon sped through the skies. With all his
superhuman strength, he forced himself upward against the hard scales and,
with muscles straining, managed to haul himself up atop its back.
When he felt that he was reasonably secure between the mighty shoulders,
he looked the beast over. He was surprised to discover that the scales felt
fully as metallic as they looked.
The dragon seemed to be searching for something, looping back and forth
across the mound and the meadow below, and Garth realized that it was unaware
of his presence on its back.
It could feel nothing through its armor and thought that he, too, like