The Serpentwar Saga: The Complete 4-Book Collection. Raymond E. Feist

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       • Chapter Four • Fugitives

      Erik fell.

      Roo turned and helped his friend back to his feet. In the distance, the baying of hounds could be heard, accompanied by the clatter of horses.

      The boys had been running on and off since leaving the orchard the night before, with no more than a few minutes’ rest at any one time. Erik’s wound refused to stop bleeding, though the flow was slight. Still, it throbbed and burned with heat and he felt himself grow weaker by the hour as they worked their way down out of the low mountains of Darkmoor.

      The area west of Darkmoor and north of the King’s Highway was still fairly underpopulated. Rocky terrain with little to recommend itself to farmers, much of the land had been timbered out but left unplowed. Thick stands of trees gave way to a sea of stumps, only to be replaced by unexpected rocky ridges. This region was rich with gullies, ravines, dead-end canyons, and low, flat meadows. Despite their having run down any number of streams, the sound of the dogs had been carrying on the wind for hours. And as Erik weakened, the sound was getting closer.

      As the morning sun crested the peaks behind them, Erik said, ‘Where are we?’

      Roo said, ‘I’m not sure. When we left the old wagon trail, I think we turned around a bit. The sun’s in the right place, so we’re still heading west.’

      Erik looked around, perspiration streaming off his forehead. He wiped it away and said, ‘We’d better keep going.’

      Roo nodded, but after three or four fumbling footsteps, Erik collapsed. Roo tried to help his friend up. ‘Why’d you have to be so damn big?’

      Erik gasped for air and said, ‘Go on without me.’

      Roo felt the hair rise upon his neck and felt panic slash through his stomach. Finding strength he didn’t know he had, he forced Erik to his feet. ‘And have to explain to your mother how I lost you? I don’t think so.’

      Roo silently prayed that Erik could hold on long enough for them to find shelter and hide from the dogs. Roo was terrified. One of the heartiest lads in Ravensburg, Erik had stamina almost as legendary as his strength among the boys he grew up with. His ability to work from dawn to dusk since the age of ten, his ability to carry iron ingots to the forge, his ability to withstand the constant weight of draft horses leaning on him while being shod – all had given Erik an almost superhuman stature among the townspeople. His weakness was as alien to Roo as it was to Erik himself. Roo found it far more frightening than anything else that confronted them. With Erik at his side, he felt he had a fighting chance to survive. Without Erik, he was helpless.

      Roo sniffed the air. ‘Do you smell something?’

      Erik said, ‘Only the stink of my own sweat.’

      ‘Over there.’ Roo motioned with his chin.

      Erik put his hand against his friend’s shoulder and rested a moment as he sniffed the air. ‘Charcoal.’

      ‘That’s it!’

      ‘There must be a charcoal burner’s hut upwind.’

      ‘It might mask our scent,’ said Roo. ‘I know we can’t go much farther. You’ve got to rest, get your strength back.’

      Erik only nodded, and Roo assisted him as they moved toward the source of the smoke. Through light woods they stumbled as the sound of the dogs grew louder by the minute. Erik and Roo were not woodsmen, but as boys they had played in the woodlands near Ravensburg enough to know those searching for them were less than a couple of miles behind and coming fast.

      The woods thickened and grew more difficult to navigate, darker shadows confusing their sense of direction, but the smell of burning wood grew stronger. By the time they reached the hut, their eyes stung from it.

      An old woman, ugly beyond belief, stood tending a charcoal kiln, feeding small cuts of wood into it, banking flames as she ensured the wood burned down properly; too hot, and she’d have ashes.

      Seeing the two young men suddenly appear out of the gloom, she shrieked and almost dove inside the rude hut beside which her kiln rested. The shrieking continued and Roo said, ‘She’ll bring them down on us if this keeps up.’

      Erik tried to raise his voice over her shouting. ‘We mean you no harm.’

      The shrieking continued, and Roo added his protestation of no evil intent to Erik’s. The woman continued to shriek. Finally Erik said, ‘We had best leave.’

      ‘We СКАЧАТЬ