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

nere a great miracle will be performed, Gaidar. Our journey will
not be slowed. All will move as has been ordered. The One God will see to that."
Mina raised her hands over the body of Goldmoon and lifted up her voice in prayer. Orangish-yellow light radiated from her hands. Tas tried to look into the light to see what was happening, but the light was like tiny pieces of glass in his eyes, made them burn and hurt so that he was forced to shut them tight. Even then he could see the glare right through them.
Mina's praying ceased. The bright light slowly faded. Tasslehoff opened his eyes.
The body of Goldmoon lay enshrined in a sarcophagus of golden amber. Encased in the amber, Goldmoon's body was once again youthful, beautiful. She wore the white robes she had worn in life. Feathers adorned her hair, that was gold threaded with silverЧyet all now held fast in amber.
Tas felt the sick feeling in his stomach rise up into his throat. He choked and clutched the window ledge for support.
"This coffin you've created is very grand, Mina," said Gaidar, and the minotaur sounded exasperated, "but what do you plan to do with her? Cart her about as a monument to this One God? Exhibit her to the populace? We are not clerics. We are soldiers. We have a war too fight."
Mina stared at Gaidar in silence, a silence so large and terrible that it absorbed into itself all sound, all light, snatched away the air they breathed. The awful silence of her fury withered Gaidar, who shrank visibly before it.
"I'm sorry, Mina," he mumbled. "I didn't meanЧ" "Be thankful that I know you, Gaidar," said Mina. "I know that you speak from your heart, without thinking. But someday, you will go too far, and on that day I will no longer be able to protect you.
This woman was more than mother to me. All I have done in the name of the One God, I have done for her."
Mina turned to the sarcophagus, placed her hands upon the amber, and bent near to look at Goldmoon's calm, still face. "You told me of the gods who had been but were no more. I went in search of themЧfor you!"
Mina's v░ice trembled. "I brought the One God to you, Mother. The One God gave you back your youth and your beauty. I thought you would be pleased. What did I do wrong? I don't understand." Mina's hands stroked the amber coffin, as if smoothing
out a blanket. She sounded bewildered. "You will change your mind, dear Mother. You will come to understand...."
"Mina . . ." Gaidar said uneasily, "I'm sorry. I didn't know. Forgive me."
Mina nodded. She did not turn her head.
Gaidar cleared his throat. "What are your orders concerning the kender?"
"Kender?" Mina repeated, only half-hearing him.
"The kender and the magical artifact. You said they were in the Tower."
Mina lifted her head. Tears glistened on her cheeks. Her face was pale, the amber eyes wide. "The kender." Her lips formed the words, but she did not speak them aloud. She frowned. "Yes, of course, go fetch him. Quickly! Make haste!"
"Do you know where he is, Mina?" Gaidar asked hesitantly. "The Tower is immense, and there are many rooms."
Mina raised her head, looked directly at Tas's window, looked directly at Tas, and pointed.
"Conundrum," said Tasslehoff in a voice that didn't sound to him like his own voice but belonged to some altogether different person, a person who was well and truly scared. "We have to get out of here. Now!"
He backed precipitously away from the window.
"There, it's finished," said Conundrum, proudly displaying the device.
"Are you sure it will work?" Tas asked anxiously. He could hear footsteps on the stairs, or at least he thought he could.
"Or course," Conundrum stated, scowling. "Good as new. By the way, what did it do when it was new?"
Tas's heart, which had leaped quite hopefully at the first part of the gnome's statement, now sank.
How do you know it works if you don't know what it does?"
Tas demanded. He could quite definitely hear footsteps. "Never mind. Just give it to me. Quickly!"
Palin had wizard-locked the door, but Palin was . . . wasn't here anymore. Tas guessed that the wizard-lock wasn't here either. He could hear footsteps and harsh breathing. He pictured the large and heavy minotaur, tromping up all those stairs.
"I thought at first it might be a potato peeler," Conundrum was saying. He gave the device a shake that made the chain rattle. "But it's a bit small, and there's no hydraulic lift. Then I thoughtЧ"
"It's a device that sends you traveling through time. That's what I'm going to do with it, Conundrum," Tasslehoff said. "Journey
back through time. I'd take you with me, but I don't think you'd much like where I'm going, which is back to the Chaos War to be stepped on by a giant. You see, it's my fault that everyone I love is dead, and if I go back, they won't be dead. I'll be dead, but that doesn't matter because I'm already deadЧ"
"Cheese grater," said Conundrum, regarding the device thoughtfully. "Or it could be, with a few modifications, a meat grinder, maybe, and aЧ"
"Never mind," said Tasslehoff, and he drew in a deep breath to give himself courage. "Just hand me the device. Thank you for fixing it. I hate to leave you here in the Tower of High Sorcery with an angry minotaur and the Dark Knights, but once I'm stepped on, they might not be here anymore. Would you please hand me the device?"
The footsteps had stopped, but not the harsh breathing. The stairs were steep and treacherous. The minotaur had been forced to halt his climb to catch his breath.
"Combination fishing rod and shoe tree?" guessed the gnome. The minotaur's footsteps started again. Tas gave up. One could be polite for only so long. Especially to a gnome. Tas made a grab for the device. "Give it to me!"
"You're not going to break it again?" Conundrum asked, holding it just out of the kender's reach.
"I'm not going to break it!" Tasslehoff said firmly. With a another lunge, he succeeded in nabbing the device and wrenched
't out of the gnome's hand. "If you'll watch closely, I'll show you how it works. I hope," he muttered to himself.
Holding the device, Tas said a little prayer in his heart. "I know you can't hear me, Fizban ... Or maybe you can but you're so disappointed in me that you don't want to hear me. I'm truly sorry. Truly, truly sorry." Tears crept into his eyes. "I never meant to cause all this trouble. I only wanted to speak at Caramon's funeral, to tell everyone what a good friend he was to me. I never meant for this to happen. Never! So, if you'll help me just once to go back to die, I'll stay dead. I promise."
"It's not doing anything," Conundrum grumbled. "Are you sure it's plugged in?"
Hearing the footsteps growing louder and louder, Tas held the device over his head.
"Words to the spell. I have to say the words to the spell. I know the words," the kender said, gulping. "It goes ... It goes ... Thy time is thine ... Around it you journey ... No, that can't be right. Travel. Around it you travel. .. and something, something
expanses . . ."
The footsteps were so close now that he could feel the floor shake.
Sweat beaded on the kender's forehead. He gulped again and looked at the device, as if it might help him. When it didn't, he shook it.
"Now I see how it got broken in the first place," said Conundrum
severely. "Is this going to take long? I think hear someone coming."
"Grasp firmly the beginning and you'll end up at the end. No, that's wrong," Tas said miserably. "All of it's wrong. I can't remember the words! What's the matter with me? I used to know it by heart. I could recite it standing on my head. I know because Fizban made me do it...."