"Dragonlance - The War of Souls 03 - Dragons of a Vanished Moon - Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragonlance)

Dead but not dead.
He looked over his shoulder at Conundrum, bent almost double over his work and still mumbling to himself.
"Whoo-boy, there are a lot of Dark Knights about," Tas said loudly. "I wonder what these Dark Knights are doing here? Don't you wonder about that, Conundrum?"
The gnome muttered, but did not look up from his work. The device was certainly going back together in a hurry.
I'm sure your work could wait. Wouldn't you like to rest a bit and come see all these Dark Knights?" Tas asked.
"No," said Conundrum, establishing the record for the shortest gnome response in history.
Tas sighed. The kender and the gnome had arrived at the Tower of High Sorcery in company with Tas's former companion and longtime friend GoldmoonЧa Goldmoon who was ninety years old if she was a day but had the body and face of a woman of twenty. Goldmoon told Dalamar that she was meeting someone at the Tower. Dalamar took Goldmoon away and told Palin to take Tasslehoff and the gnome away and put them in a room to waitЧmaking this a waiting room. It was then Dalamar had said, You do understand the significance of the gnome?
Palin had left them here, after wizard-locking the door. Tas knew the door was wizard-locked, because he'd already used up his very best lockpicks in an effort to open it without success. The day lockpicks fail is a day wizards are involved, as his father had been wont to say.
Standing at the window, staring down at the Knights, who appeared to be waiting for something and not much enjoying the wait, Tasslehoff was struck by an idea. The idea struck so hard that he reached up with the hand that wasn't holding onto the bronze statue of the elf maiden to feel if he had a lump on his head. Not finding one, he glanced surreptitiously (he thought that was the word) back at the gnome. The device was almost back together. Only a few pieces remained, and those were fairly small and probably not terribly important.
Feeling much better now that he had a Plan, Tas went back to observing what was happening out the window, thinking that now he could properly enjoy it. He was rewarded by the sight of an immense minotaur emerging from the Tower of High Sorcery. Tas was about four stories up in the Tower, and he could look right down on the top of the minotaur's head. If he chucked the statue out the window now, he could bean the minotaur.
Clunking a minotaur over the head was a delightful thought, and Tas was tempted. At that moment, however, several Dark Knights trooped out of the Tower. They bore something between themЧa body covered with a black cloth.
Tas stared down, pressing his nose so hard against the glass pane that he heard cartilage crunch. As the troop carrying the body moved out of the Tower, the wind sighed among the cypress trees, lifted the black cloth to reveal the face of the corpse.
Tasslehoff recognized Dalamar.
Tas's hands went numb. The statue fell to the floor with a
crash.
Conundrum's head shot up. "What in the name of dual carburetors did you do that for?" he demanded. "You made me drop
a screw!"
More Dark Knights appeared, carrying another body. The wind blew harder, and the black cloth that had been thrown carelessly over the corpse slid to the ground. Palin's dead face looked up at the kender. His eyes were wide open, fixed and staring. His robes were soaked in blood.
"This is my fault!" Tas cried, riven by guilt. "If I had gone back to die, like I was supposed to, Palin and Dalamar wouldn't be dead now."
"I smell smoke," said Conundrum suddenly. He sniffed the air. "Reminds me of home," he stated and went back to his work.
Tas stared bleakly out the window. The Dark Knights had started a bonfire at the base of the Tower, stoking it with dry branches and logs from the cypress forest. The wood crackled. The smoke curled up the stone side of the Tower like some noxious vine. The Knights were building a funeral pyre.
"Conundrum," said Tasslehoff in a quiet voice, "how are you coming with the Device of Time Journeying? Have you fixed it yet?"
"Devices? No time for devices now," Conundrum said importantly. "I have this contraption about fixed."
"Good," said Tasslehoff.
Another Dark Knight came out of the Tower. She had red hair, cropped close to her head, and Tasslehoff recognized her. He'd seen her before, although he couldn't recall where.
The woman carried a body in her arms, and she moved very slowly and solemnly. At a shouted command from the
minotaur, the other Knights halted their work and stood with their heads bowed.
The woman walked slowly to the wagon. Tas tried to see who it was the woman carried, but his view was blocked by the minotaur.
The woman lowered the person gently into the wagon. She backed away and Tasslehoff had a clear view.
He'd assumed that the person was another Dark Knight, maybe one who'd been wounded. He was astonished to see that the person in the wagon was an old, old woman, and Tas knew immediately that the old woman was dead. He felt very sorry and wondered who she was. Some relation4?f the Dark Knight with the red hair, for she arranged the folds ofthe woman's white gown around her and then brushed out with her fingers the woman's long, flowing, silver-white hair.
"So Goldmoon used to brush out my hair, Gaidar," said the woman.
Her words carried clearly in the still air. Much too clearly, as far as Tas concerned.
"Goldmoon." Tas felt a lump of sadness rise up in his throat. "She is dead. Caramon, Palin ..". Everyone I love is dead. And it's my fault. I'm the one who should be dead."
The horses drawing the wagon shifted restlessly, as if anxious to leave. Tas glanced back at Conundrum. Only two tiny jewels remained to be stuck on somewhere.
"Why did we come here, Mina?" The minotaur's booming voice could be heard clearly. "You have captured Solanthus, given the Solamnics a sound spanking and sent them running home to mama. The entire Solamnic nation is yours now. You have done what no one else has been able to do in the entire history of the worldЧ"
"Not quite, Gaidar," Mina corrected him. "We must still take Sanction, and we must take it by the time of the Festival of the Eye."
"The . . . festival?" The minotaur's forehead wrinkled. "The Festival of the Eye. By my horns, I had almost forgotten that old celebration." He grinned. "You are such a youngling, Mina, I'm
surprised you know of it at all. It hasn't been celebrated since the three moons vanished."
"Goldmoon told me about the festival," said Mina, gently stroking the dead woman's wrinkled cheek. "That it was held on the night when all three moonsЧthe red, the white, and the black_converged, forming the image of a great staring eye in the heavens. I should like to have seen that sight."
"Among humans, it was a night for riot and revelry, or so I have heard. Among my people, the night was honored and reverenced,"
Gaidar stated, "for we believed the Eye to be the eye of Sargas, our godЧformer god," he added hastily, with a sidelong glance at Mina. "Still, what has some old festival to do with capturing Sanction?
The three moons are gone, and so is the eye of the gods."
"There will be a festival, Gaidar," said Mina. "The Festival of the New Eye, the One Eye. We will celebrate the festival in the Temple of Huerzyd."
"But the Temple of Huerzyd is in Sanction," Gaidar protested. "We are on the other side of the continent from Sanction, not to mention the fact that Sanction is firmly in control of the Solamnic Knights. When will the festival occur?"
"At the appointed time," said Mina. "When the totem is assembled. When the red dragon falls from the skies."
"Ugh," Gaidar grunted. "Then we should be marching to Sanction now and bringing with us an army. Yet we waste our time at this fell place." He cast a glance of enmity at the Tower. "Our march will be further slowed if we must cart along the body of this old woman."
The bonfire roared and crackled. The flames leaped up the stone walls of the Tower, charring them. Smoke swirled about Gaidar, who batted irritably at it, and drifted in through the window. Tas coughed, covered his mouth with his hand.
I am commanded to bring the body of Goldmoon, princess of
the Que-shu, bearer of the blue crystal staff, to Sanction, to the
Temple of Huerzyd on the night of the Festival of the New Eye.