"Dragonlance - Deathgate Cycle 06 - Into the Labyrinth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Deathgate Cycle)

"You gave life," said Kleitus. "You have the right to take it."

"...take it."

"Perhaps," Xar said loudly over the echo. "Perhaps that is true. And if there were more of my peopleЧfar moreЧI might consider it. But our numbers are few and I dare not waste even one."

"What do you want of me, Lord of the Nexus?"

"...Nexus?"

"I was talking to one of the other lazar, a woman named Jera. She mentioned that there were SartanЧliving SartanЧstill on Abarrach. A man named ... um ..." Xar hesitated, appeared at a loss.

"Balthazar!" Kleitus hissed.

"Balthazar..." mourned the echo.

"Yes, that was the name," Xar said hastily. "Balthazar. He leads them. An early report I received from a man called HaploЧa Patryn who once visited AbarrachЧled me to believe that this Sartan Balthazar and his people all perished at your hands. But Jera tells me that this is not true."

"Haplo, yes, I recall him." Kleitus did not seem to find the memory a pleasant one. He brooded for a long moment, the soul flying in, struggling, flying out of the body. He came to a halt in front of Xar, stared at the lord with shifting eyes. "Did Jera tell you what happened?"

Xar found the corpse's gaze disconcerting. "No," he lied, forcing himself to remain seated when it was his instinct to get up and flee to a far corner. "No, Jera did not. I thought perhaps youЧ"

"The living ran before us." Kleitus resumed his restless walk. "We followed. They could not hope to escape us. We never tire. We need no rest. We need no food. We need no water. At last we had them trapped. They made a pitiable stand before us, planning to fight to save their miserable lives. We had among us their own prince. He was dead. I had brought him back to life myself. He knew what the living had done to the dead. He understood. Only when the living are all dead can the dead be free. He swore he would lead us against his own people.

"We readied for the kill. But then one of our number stepped forwardЧthe husband of this very Jera. He is a lazar. His wife murdered him, raised him up, gave him the power we command. But he betrayed us. Somehow, somewhere, he had found a power of his own. He has the gift of death, as did one other Sartan who came to this world, came through Death's GateЧ"

"Who was that?" Xar asked. His interest, which had been lagging through the lazar's long-winded discourse, was suddenly caught.

"I don't know. He was a Sartan, but he had a mensch name," said Kleitus, irritated at the interruption.

"Alfred?"

"Perhaps. What difference does it make?" Kleitus seemed obsessed with telling his tale. "Jera's husband broke the spell that held the prince's corpse captive. The prince's body died. The prison walls of his flesh crumbled. The soul floated free." Kleitus sounded angry, bitter.

"...floated free." The echo was wistful, longing.

Xar was impatient. Gift of death. Sartan nonsense.

"What happened to Balthazar and his people?" he demanded.

"They escaped us," Kleitus hissed. His waxen hands clenched in fury. "We tried to go after them, but Jera's husband was too powerful. He stopped us."

"So there are Sartan still living on Abarrach," Xar said, fingers drumming the table. "Sartan who can provide the corpses I need for my experiments. Corpses who will be troops in my army. Do you have any idea where they are?"

"If we did, they would not still be living," Kleitus said, regarding Xar with hatred. "Would they, Lord of the Nexus?"

"I suppose not," Xar muttered. "This husband of Jera's. Where is he? Undoubtedly he knows how to find the Sartan?"

"I do not know where he has gone. He was in Necropolis until you and your people arrived. He kept us out of our city. Kept me out of my palace. But you appeared, and he left."