"Troy Denning - Return of the Archwizards 2 - The Siege" - читать интересную книгу автора (Denning Troy)

of what was happening.
"Phaerimm!" Vala stretched her hand toward the one she had attacked and
thought of her darksword, and the

blade rose out of the water and flew back into her grasp. "Three of them!"
She heard Galaeron intoning his second spell and looked over to see him
flipping the ring of shadowsilk toward the place the third phaerimm had
entered the water. A disk of black shadow appeared two inches above the
surface. Vala was distracted as the startled phaerimm activated their floating
magic and began rising out of the water. The two nearest the curtain came up
in the midst of the astonished shadow lords, who quickly proved the truth of
EscanorтАЩs boasts by assailing them with shadow webs and darkswords.
Even caught off guard, the phaerimm reacted like the terrors they were,
unleashing a flurry of fire strikes and lightning bolts that left a dozen
Shadovar bobbing dead in the darkening waters. A pair of scorched shadow lords
popped up beside Vala, their arms and legs blasted off by the force of the
strike that had killed them. Vala threw her sword again, only to see her
target scythed down the middle by a falling wall of black glass as Escanor
unleashed his own magic.
Vala glanced over to see the third phaerimm's tail vanishing into the circle
of shadow Galaeron had placed over its splash ring. The elf himself was
pointing across the lake roughly in her direction. Knowing the creature would
be disoriented for a moment when it emerged from Galaeron's shadow door, Vala
nodded and reached out to summon her sword back.
Galaeron's finger shifted in Prince Escanor's direction.
"No, Galaeron!" Vala cried. "Here!"
Too late. The third phaerimm had already reappeared, stunned and disoriented
by its dizzying journey through the shadow plane. But Escanor happened to be
turning to attack their other surviving foe, and so this thornback

appeared behind him instead of in front. Vala's stomach turned to ice. With
the prince at least twenty paces away and in a direct line beyond the dazed
phaerimm, she did not dare throw her sword again.
She started toward him, yelling, "Escanor, behind you!"
The prince cocked his head in response but only stretched a hand toward the
second phaerimm, who was assailing five of his lords with a roaring storm of
meteors. A sphere of spinning darkness shot from his hand and streaked through
the thing's torso, leaving a basket-sized hole in the heart of its body. The
creature splashed into the lake and slowly sank out of sight.
The third phaerimm was already bringing its tail out of the water, ten steps
away.
"Watch your back!" she cried.
A murky aura of darknessтАФmore of Galaeron's magic, Vala guessedтАФenveloped
the phaerimm, but the spell did not prevent the creature's tail from catching
Escanor in the pit of the stomach as he spun to meet the attack. The barb sank
to its root, doubling the prince over and drawing an eerie gurgle of anguish.
Vala hurled her darksword. The blade tumbled three times, then sank
hilt-deep in the phaerimm's torso. The creature began to flicker between
material and immaterial, and Vala was astonished to realize that Galaeron had
not cast his spell to protect the prince but to trap the phaerimm beside him.