"Dragonlance - Deathgate 6 - Into The Labyrinth - uc" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragonlance)

"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."

8 WEIS AND HICKMAN

"Afraid of me, no doubt," Xar said offhandedly. "He fears nothing, Lord of the Nexus!" Kleitus laughed unpleasantly. "He is the one of whom the prophecy speaks."

"I heard about a prophecy." Xar waved a negligent hand. "Haplo said something about it. He viewed prophecies much as I view them, however. Wishes, nothing more. I give them little credence."

"You should give this one credence, Patryn. So the prophecy is spoken: 'He wilt bring life to the dead, hope to the living, and for him the Gate wilt open.' That is the prophecy. And it has come to pass."

"... come to pass."

"Yes, it has come to pass," Xar echoed the echo. "/ am the one who has brought the prophecy to fulfillment. It speaks of me, not some perambulating corpse."

"I think not . . ."

". . , think not."

"Of course it has!" Xar said irritably. " 'The Gate will open . . .' The Gate has opened."

"Death's Gate has opened."

"What other gate is there?" Xar demanded, annoyed and only half-listening, hoping to steer the conversation back to where it had started.

"The Seventh Gate," Kleitus replied.

And this time the echo was silent. Xar glanced up, wondering what was the matter with it.

"Your talk of armies, of conquest, of traveling from world to world . . . What a waste of time and effort." Kleitus gave a rictus smile, "When all you need to do is step inside the Seventh Gate."