"David Eddings. Castle of wizardry enchanters' end game (The Belgariad, Part two)" - читать интересную книгу автора

"How considerate," Silk observed sardonically. "Did it ever occur to
you to let us know you were out there?"
Hettar shrugged. "We could see that you were all right." He looked
critically at their exhausted mounts. "You didn't take very good care of
them," he said accusingly.
"We were a bit pressed," Durnik apologized.
"Did you get the Orb?" the tall man asked Belgarath, glancing hungrily
down toward the river where a vast battle had been joined.
"It took a bit, but we got it," the old sorcerer replied.
"Good." Hettar turned his horse, and his lean face had a fierce look on
it. "I'll tell Cho-Hag. Will you excuse me?" Then he stopped as if
remembering something. "Oh," he said to Barak, "congratulations, by the
way."
"For what?" the big man asked, looking puzzled.
"The birth of your son."
"What?" Barak sounded stunned. "How?"
"In the usual way, I'd imagine," Hettar replied.
"I mean how did you find out?"
"Anheg sent word to us."
"When was he born?"
"A couple months ago." Hettar looked nervously down at the battle which
was raging on both sides of the river and in the middle of the ford as
well. "I really have to go," he said. "If I don't hurry, there won't be
any Murgos left." And he drove his heels into his horse's flanks and
plunged down the hill.
"He hasn't changed a bit," Silk noted.
Barak was standing with a somewhat foolish grin on his big, redbearded
face.
"Congratulations, my Lord," Mandorallen said to him, clasping his hand.
Barak's grin grew broader.
It quickly became obvious that the situation of the encircled Murgos
below was hopeless. With his army cut in two by the river, Taur Urgas was
unable to mount even an orderly retreat. The forces he had brought across
the river were quickly swarmed under by King Cho-Hag's superior numbers,
and the few survivors of that short, ugly melиe plunged back into the
river, protectively drawn up around the red and black banner of the Murgo
king. Even in the ford, however, the Algar warriors pressed him. Some
distance upriver Garion could see horsemen plunging into the icy water to
be carried down by the current to the shallows of the ford in an effort to
cut off escape. Much of the fight in the river was obscured by the sheets
of spray kicked up by struggling horses, but the bodies floating
downstream testified to the savagery of the clash.
Briefly, for no more than a moment, the red and black banner of Taur
Urgas was confronted by the burgundyand-white horse-banner of King
Cho-Hag, and then the two were swept apart.
"That could have been an interesting meeting," Silk noted. "ChoHag and
Taur Urgas have hated each other for years."
Once the king of the Murgos regained the east bank, he rallied what
forces he could, turned, and fled back across the open grassland toward
the escarpment with Algar clansmen hotly pursuing him. For the bulk of his