"I 03 - Brothers Majere" - читать интересную книгу автора (3))

"Oh, get along with you!" said Maggie, giving him a playful shove. Sighing, she sank back against a tree, her eyes half-closed, watching the warrior run after the mage.
The companions started on their way, walking for a time in silenceЧthe mage working off his ire, the warrior letting his twin cool down. Earwig, mercifully, had dashed up ahead "to check things out."
The road was empty, though there was evidence that a horse had galloped over it not many hours before. Its hooves had dug deep into the damp earth.
Raistlin studied the horse's hoofprints and wondered what urgency had driven a rider to press his animal so. There could be any number of reasons, but the mage felt suddenly, intuitively, that it had something to do with them. An uneasiness was growing in Raistlin. He had the distinct impression that, instead of walking toward Mereklar, they should be hastening away from it. He came to a stop.
"Caramon. What is that?" Raistlin pointed with the staff toward a spot in the mudddy road.
Caramon came back to look. 'That track?" The warrior knelt down, brow furrowed in concentration. "I'm not sure, Raist," he said, rising to his feet, his face carefully expressionless. "I'm not a very good tracker. You'd have to get one of those Que-shu barbariansЧ"
"Caramon, what kind of animal made that track?"
The warrior looked uncomfortable. "Well, if I had to sayЧ"
"You do."
"I guess ... a cat."
"A cat?" Raistlin's eyes narrowed.
"A ... big . . . cat." Caramon gulped.
"Thank you, my brother." Raistlin continued walking.
92
B not tens Majene
Caramon, falling in next to him, sighed in relief that his twin's ill humor was apparently over. The warrior drew a small ball of cloth out of his pocket. He put it to his nose, sniffing at it and smiled at the sweet, spicy smeH. The ball was decorated with sequins that had been sewn onto it by loving hands. A long yellow ribbonЧ a hair ribbonЧ fluttered gaily from the top.
"What's that?" Raistlin asked coldly.
"A gift. It's supposed to bring good fortune!" Caramon held it up by the ribbon, spinning it in the morning's light, watching the sequins reflect a rainbow of fascinating colors.
The mage thrust his hand into his pouch, his fingers touching his own gift of the morning.
"You're a superstitious fool, brother!" Raistlin said with a sneer.
Cfyapten s
/? was Niqtjt vv/yew iftey neacljet) Menekian. C/?e
city's white walls glowed eerily in the silver moonlight. The bas-reliefs on the wallsЧ raised patterns of the history of Krynn expanded into huge shapes, actors forever frozenЧ threw strange, shifting shadows over the surrounding grounds.
Earwig was fascinated. He'd never, in all his travels, seen anything so marvelous. He loved stories, and this was like having every one he'd ever heard come real before his eyes. The kender ran his hands along the walls, walking slowly, gazing in wonder.
'There's Huma and the Silver Dragon," he said, point-
BROtrjens Majerce
ing to the hero and his tragic love, each perfectly inscribed, every line, curve, and angle in exact proportions, "I don't recognize that one, though. Or that one either. That guy's a wizard, isn't he, Raistlin? Like you. Why, he is you! Look, Raistlin, you're fighting another wizardЧa real, real old wizard. And that warrior there looks sort of like you, Caramon. The one in the arena, battling a minotaur. And"ЧEarwig's mouth droppedЧ "I'll swear that's Cousin Tas! There! Talking to a five-headed dragon! Look, Raistlin, look!"
"Nonsense!"
The mage gasped for breath. He barely glanced at the walls. His strength was failing fast. It always did, with the coming of night. He had been leaning on his brother's strong arm for the last few miles.
"Hurry up, Earwig!" snapped Caramon, anxious to get his brother to a place where he could rest.
"I'm coming," murmured the kender, moving along slowly, feet dragging. "I wonder why these walls are blank. ... I know! I'll bet they're waitingЧwaiting for great deeds of the future to be recorded on them. Maybe"Чhe heaved an ecstatic sighЧ"maybe I'll be up there someday!"
Each pass of his fingers over the slate sent thrilling chills down his arms and back. He could almost see himself, immortalized in stone, joining the rest of Krynn's famous and heroic.
"Earwig!" Caramon called irritably.
The kender paused, glancing back at the wall. The wizard certainly did resemble Raistlin. But how could the mage be here and be bad in the past at the same time? He'd have to remember to ask.
"Kender!" Caramon shouted in a voice that meant no nonsense. "Get up here now, or we'll leave you behind!"
94
DRA(JONLANCE Pneluoes
Earwig hurried to catch up. He might have a chance, in this wondrous city, to be a hero and have his picture on the wall. Imagining his adventures, he forgot all about asking Raistlin how he could be master of the past and the present.
"Wait a moment, Caramon!" Raistlin clutched his chest. "Let me ... catch my breath."
"Sure, Raist."
Caramon stopped walking. Raistlin, gripping the staff to support himself, stood before the city walls. He wasn't coughing, however. Looking closer, the fighter saw that his brother was staring down at the ground, intently, concentrating. Raistlin's face could not be seen behind the red cowl, hiding from the silver moonlight.
Caramon experienced a feeling he often had around his brother, the sense that nobody in the entire world could ever intrude upon the young mage's thoughts, that no force in the world would ever shake Raistlin's ambition. Caramon found himself wondering, with a feeling of uneasiness, just what Raistlin's ambitions were.
Raistlin glanced up, turning to face his brother. Red moonlight filled the mage's hood, making his gold skin blaze with fire Ч a brazier of inner strength, indomitable, unquenchable. The hourglass eyes were filled with crimson, unscarred by the silver of the other moon. Caramon gaped, wondering if the apparition before him was truly his twin.
Raistlin smiled slightly, seeing his brother's obvious discomfort.
"Aren't we going in?" Earwig was looking at them anxiously.
Caramon suddenly wanted to shout, "No!" turn around, and walk straight back to the inn. He knew with the intuitive sense that made the brothers nearer twins on the inside than they were on the outside that Raistlin believed great danger lay ahead of them.
Bnotrjens Majene
Great danger, but also great reward.
"Come on! You were the ones who told me to hurry!" Earwig urged, his shrill voice sounding too loud in the night stillness.
"Magic," Caramon muttered beneath his breath. "He'll risk his life for the magic!" And mine, too, the warrior added in silence.