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

Koros, had fallen.
He smiled, brushed aside a lock of black hair that had fallen into one
eye, and drew his dagger. He had lost his sword in his leap, releasing it
without conscious thought when he had to find a fingerhold, but his axe was
slung across his back, and the dagger's sheath was secure on his belt. He set
about prying at the scales on the back of the dragon's neck, wedging the point
of the knife beneath their overlapped edges and working upward.
The scales tore loose and fell, tinkling down past the dragon's wings
into space. To Garth's surprise, the monster did not react. He leaned forward
to look at the spot of hide thus uncovered, as the wind of a high-speed turn
lashed at him.
Beneath the scaly armor was a fine wire mesh, and beneath that, Garth
could faintly make out a myriad of gears, chains, springs, and sprockets,
ticking quietly.
He sat motionless for a moment, absorbing this discovery of the dragon's
true nature. Quickly, he reached a decision; he could not kill this thing,
obviously, and now he decided that he did not want to destroy it. He sat back
and waited.
It was almost pleasant, crouching atop the broad metal back of the
dragon as it swooped through the air. Garth had never flown before and found
what little he could see from where he sat to be intriguing indeed. The wind
was fresh and exhilarating when the monster was not in one of its sudden turns
or dives, and the view was amazing.
He did not have to wait long; after a few more passes across the hillock
and meadow, the dragon looped back up across the riverbank, then soared
gracefully down into the gaping mouth of a cave on the eastern shore, at the
base of the hillock. It braked by cupping its wings forward.
Inside the opening, it folded its wings and settled neatly to the
ground, landing with a heavy thud and a mild bump. Then, in a scant second, it
froze into total immobility, losing completely its incredible semblance of
life and becoming a mere metal construct.
Garth glanced up and about and saw that the entire inside of the mound
was hollow. Nor was it a natural cave; stone arches braced the ceiling, and
niches were occupied by flaring oil lamps. Three young men stood off to one
side, well away from the dragon; they had not yet noticed its unwanted
passenger.
The smoke that still streamed from the creature's nostrils suddenly
thickened, and a loud hissing came from somewhere beneath the overman; then
the smoke stopped entirely, leaving a thinning cloud to obscure the chamber's
sooty upper reaches.
Garth leaned over the dragon's shoulder and watched as a door in its
belly swung open, just barely visible to him beyond the curve of chest and
foreleg. Three men crawled out, then two more, and finally two more still.
Garth lifted the axe off his back with his right hand, keeping his drawn
dagger in his left, and vaulted down to the cave floor. He landed in front of
the party of seven that had emerged from the dragon, with the other three
humans to his right. The jump was longer than he had realized in the poor
light, but he managed to catch himself and keep from sprawling, though it was
not the dignified and dramatic entrance that he had hoped for.
The men froze, staring at him in astonishment. He stared back.