Книга только для ознакомления
.
I awoke on the second night to the jostling of Heros.
He was fully armed, having dressed himself while I slept, as
though there was no time to waken a squire (or as I came to
see later, as though somehow in arming himself he took part
in a strange penance, having last performed the task on the
night of vigil before his knighthood ceremonies).
DEREK IS RIDING OUT, he said flatly, averting his
eyes as my thoughts rose out of sleep, constructing once
again from the bare walls and the damp cold of the chamber
just where it was I had awakened, at first thinking that
Heros was announcing retreat, surrender, abandonment,
then realizing it was none of these and all of these at the
same time - that an attack too monstrous to be ill-advised
and too foolish to be heroic was set to begin, and that in the
courtyards of the fortress the footmen were marshalling.
There was nothing to be said, nothing to be asked
except, AND YOU?
His eyes still avoided me. STURM FEELS THAT THE
DEFENSE OF THE FORTRESS REMAINS THE DEFENSE
OF PALANTHAS. I AGREE WITH STURM.
BUT NOT AGREEMENT, I thought. NOTHING MORE
THAN SHEER AND DELIBERATE SURVIVAL, IF NOT A
LASTING SURVIVAL THEN THE WEEKS, THE DAYS, OR
EVEN THE HOURS THAT STAYING BEHIND WILL GIVE
US
|
