"Brooks - Heritage 2 -The Druid of Shannara" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brooks Terry)

less fingers.

Then he realized that something had changed.

He pushed himself upright and looked down at his arm. The
blow had shattered the stone limb at the point of impact. His
wrist and hand remained fastened to the Asphinx in the gloom
of the hidden compartment'of the cavern floor. But the rest of
him was free.

He knelt in stunned disbelief for a long time, staring down at
the ruin of his arm, at the gray-streaked flesh above the elbow
and the jagged stone capping below. His arm felt leaden and
stiff. The poison already within it continued to work its damage.
There were jolts of pain all through him.

But he was free! Shades, he was free!

Suddenly there was a stirring in the chamber beyond, a faint

12 The Druid of Shannam

and distant mstling like something had come awake. Walker
Boh went cold in the pit of his stomach as he realized what had
happened. His scream had given him away. The chamber be-
yond was the Assembly, and it was in the Assembly that the
serpent Valg, guardian of the dead, had once lived.

And might live still.
Walker came to his feet, sudden dizziness washing through

him. He ignored it, ignored the pain and weariness as well, and
stumbled toward the heavy, ironbound entry doors that had
brought him in. He shut away the sounds of everything about
him, everything within, concentrating the whole of his effort on
making his way across the cavern floor to the passageway that
lay beyond. If the serpent was alive and found him now, he knew

he was finished.

Luck was with him. The serpent did not emerge. Nothing

appeared. Walker reached the doors leading from the tomb and
pushed his way through into the darkness beyond.

What happened then was never clear afterward in his mind.
Somehow he managed to work his way back through the Hall
of Kings, past the Banshees whose howl could drive men mad,
and past the Sphinxes whose gaze could turn men to stone. He
heard the Banshees wail, felt the gaze of the Sphinxes burning