"Margaret Weis - Dragonlance Chronicles 01 - Dragons Of Autumn Twilight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragonlance)

Warmed by the afternoon sun, the boulder felt comfortable to the ancient dwarf,
who had been walking all day in the chill autumn air. Flint relaxed and let the
warmth seep into his bones-the warmth of the sun and the warmth of his thoughts.
Because he was home.
He looked around him, his eyes lingering fondly over the familiar landscape. The
mountainside below him formed one side of a high mountain bowl carpeted in
autumn splendor. The vallenwood trees in the valley were ablaze in the season's
colors, the brilliant reds and golds fading into the purple of the Kharolis
peaks beyond. The flawless, azure sky among the trees was repeated in the waters
of Crystalmir Lake. Thin columns of smoke curled among the treetops, the only
sign of the presence of Solace. A soft, spreading haze blanketed the vale with
the sweet aroma of home fires burning.
As Flint sat and rested, he pulled a block of wood and a gleaming dagger from
his pack, his hands moving without conscious thought. Since time uncounted, his
people had always had the need to shape the shapeless to their liking. He
himself had been a metalsmith of some renown before his retirement some years
earlier. He put the knife to the wood, then, his attention caught, Flint's hands
remained idle as he watched the smoke drift up from the hidden chimneys below.
"My own home fire's gone out," Flint said softly. He shook himself, angry at
feeling sentimental, and began slicing at the wood with a vengeance. He grumbled
loudly, "My house has been sitting empty. Roof probably leaked, ruined the
furniture. Stupid quest. Silliest thing I ever did. After one hundred and
forty-eight years, I ought to have learned!"
"You'll never learn, dwarf," a distant voice answered him. "Not if you live to
be two hundred and forty-eight!"
Dropping the wood, the dwarf's hand moved with calm assurance from the dagger to
the handle of his axe as he peered down the path. The voice sounded familiar,
the first familiar voice he'd heard in a long time. But he couldn't place it.
Flint squinted into the setting sun. He thought he saw the figure of a man
striding up the path. Standing, Flint drew back into the shadow of a tall pine
to see better. The man's walk was marked by an easy grace-an elvish grace, Flint
would have said; yet the man's body had the thickness and tight muscles of a
human, while the facial hair was definitely humankind's. All the dwarf could see
of the man's face beneath a green hood was tan skin and a brownish-red beard. A
longbow was slung over one shoulder and a sword hung at his left side. He was
dressed in soft leather, carefully tooled in the intricate designs the elves
loved. But no elf in the world of Krynn could grow a beard no elf, but . . .
"Tanis?" said Flint hesitantly as the man neared.
"The same." The newcomer's bearded face split in a wide grin. He held open his
arms and, before the dwarf could stop him, engulfed Flint in a hug that lifted
him off the ground. The dwarf clasped his old friend close for a brief instant,
then, remembering his dignity, squirmed and freed himself from the half-elf's
embrace.
"Well, you've learned no manners in five years," the dwarf grumbled. "Still no
respect for my age or my station. Hoisting me around like a sack of potatoes."
Flint peered down the road. "I hope no one who knows us saw us."
"I doubt there are many who'd remember us," Tanis said, his eyes studying his
stocky friend fondly. "Time doesn't pass for you and me, old dwarf, as it does
for humans. Five years is a long time for them, a few moments for us." Then he
smiled. "You haven't changed."