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

for the furnace now.
Another man interrupted, asking desperately, "You won't tell anyone,
will you? It's all that keeps the Baron of Sland away!"
Garth's grin faded. "I should tell the old man who sent me here-but no,
I need not do that; I can tell him, truthfully, that the dragon is dead. I
will say nothing to any other, and I think that you need not worry about the
old man; he speaks little and will keep silent about it."
"That's all right, then," someone said. Relief was evident on several
coal-darkened faces.
"Would you like to see inside?" the young man asked.
Garth nodded. "Yes, I would. But I must not stay too long; my warbeast
must be found and its injuries tended."
"I don't think he's hurt much," one of the dragon's crew volunteered.
A roar from the mouth of the cave confirmed his opinion; Koros had had
little trouble in tracking down the dragon. It stalked silently into the
chamber to greet its master.
Garth made it welcome, then remarked to the man who had last spoken,
"It, not he; only the neuters ever grow large enough to be ridden." He told
the warbeast to behave, then followed the youth into the dragon's belly to
study the workings of the great machine.


CHAPTER FIVE

Garth spent the night in a room at the Sword and Chalice, but the inn had no
stable adequate to house Koros, so the warbeast stayed out on the plaza. There
was little danger that anyone would try to steal it or any of Garth's
belongings still on its back; the beast knew well who its master was, and
would not accompany a stranger without Garth's orders, or permit anyone but
the overman to disturb the supplies it guarded. No one in his right mind would
argue with a warbeast. No one mad enough to try would survive the argument.
The overman arose late, a good hour after sunrise, and took his time in
preparing for his departure. The afternoon, he knew, would be more than enough
for him to find his way out of Orgul; once he was in Eramma again, he intended
to travel by night, as he had done before.
When he had finished his packing, eaten a hearty breakfast, and made
sure that Koros had been tended to, he swung himself into the saddle, ready to
leave. Before Koros had taken more than a single step, however, he changed his
mind and ordered the warbeast to turn west rather than northeast. He had no
reason to hurry; no urgent tasks needed to be undertaken, no one eagerly
awaited his return to Skelleth. It could do no harm if he lingered for a visit
to the toymaker; after all, he had a purchase to make.
Koros had no objection; it strode silently down the western street and
halted obediently at the door of the last shop.
The door was closed, and the curtains were drawn across the display
windows; Garth saw no sign of the old man. He dismounted and rapped lightly,
twice, on the wooden panels.
A muffled call answered him, and a moment later the toymaker emerged,
blinking in the bright sunlight. He stared up at the overman.
"Oh, it's you," he said with an uncertain smile.