Книга только для ознакомления
. "You
have often said that at a hunt's end the hunter should be
alive, the quarry dead."
"I have often been insulting." His eyes blurred; with
great effort he shook his head and cleared them angrily.
"What will happen now?"
"If I know soldiers, the commanders who ordered the
search of Darken Wood will decide to delay another search
until they feel they can risk further loss. They will also hope
that their quarry, the questing party of the other night,
appears elsewhere, as someone else's responsibility." He
shuddered. "At any rate, we will have saved this part of the
world for a while - if, as they say, I know soldiers."
"You know soldiers well. You lead them still better."
"Thank you." The king sat down heavily by the
bleeding stag. "A satisfying night, but not an easy one. I
have been wounded."
"Recently?" The stag grunted as its forehead horn,
cracked by the sword-blow, split all the way to the skull.
"Tonight, in fact."
"At any other time, I enjoy a joke - "
"Seriously." Red leaked through the holes in the king's
armor, as though the rubies were melting. "I had forgotten
how painful this was."
"You could have asked me." The stag raised its pain-
wracked head
|
