"Clayton Emery - Netheril 03 - Mortal Consequences" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emery Clayton)

would wrap tighter until he suffocated. After that, the snow lurker would take days to digest him,
gaining life and warmth from his rotting carcass. Sunbright had seen reindeer skeletons with the ribs
and pelvis crushed, marking a lurker's attack.
He kicked, but both legs were trussed tight, as if roped. Bucking his back and buttocks did little
good, for he couldn't gain leverage against the ground. As part of its brutal attack, the snow lurker
rolled over and over, humped, and flattened like a gigantic inchworm. Such gyrations would disorient
and panic prey, squeeze air from the lungs. Whirled around and around, Sunbright felt his stomach
lurch. He'd already banged his nose against the leather hide twice. Blood and snot were salty and bitter
on his tongue, foul enough to choke him. Biting did no good, for the leather hide was slick with blood
and sweat.
 Strength alone couldn't save him. He could only hope Knucklebones got his message. Otherwise
this hot thrashing darkness was a preview of hell.
Yet the elven thief fought two menaces. It was bad enough trying to catch the bucking lurker, it
rolled as fast as she could run. Now, where the beast had left a diamond-shaped impression on the
ground, there was exposed gray-green tundra moss. And from a hole in that lumpy ground issued a
flood of white ants as large as her foot. Hundreds of them.
These arctic ants churned tunnels in the snow to chase the lurker. Knucklebones reasoned that the
ants took advantage of the lurker's attack to scavenge leftovers. The thief got in their way as both
struggled to catch the rolling monster and its prey. Ants swarmed over her. In passing, they tasted her
flesh. Pincers like pliers ticked hunks from her neck and hands. The insects must have found her
sweet, for some unheard signal brought more ants rushing. Within a minute, a dozen white ants big as
rabbits galloped up and down her furs and gear, nipping at exposed flesh, drawing blood.
Knucklebones yelped, swore, and swatted. With one hand she grabbed the thorax of an ant, cold as
an icicle, and squeezed. Brittle legs windmilled as the carapace cracked. Acrid chilly glop stained her
hand, and stung in an ant bite. Another bit her ear alongside her leather eye patch. She batted it away,
losing a piece of her ear to icy jaws.
Yet Knucklebones was raddled with scars from years of fighting, and could ignore pain and distress
to keep herself alive in a fight. So could Sunbright, for he still squirmed within the leather folds of the
snow lurker.
Pushing aside the irritation and threat of the antsтАФenough of them could strip her to her bonesтАФ
she pursued the humping monster. The beast slowed, tiring, but was still dangerous as a kicking horse.
The man trapped inside slowed too. Sunbright was running out of air.
Thinking furiously, Knucklebones tried to time the erratic flailing of the lurker, but found no
pattern. It could as easily roll over and crush her legs as tumble the other way. Finally, she locked her
elven knife in her right fist, blade sticking out and away, and leaped.
Though the lurker's hairy skin was slick with snowmelt, the nimble thief managed to wrap her legs
around it, but only for a second. The creature reacted to the unnatural touch with new energy, humping
high and slamming the earth, then rolling to toss Knucklebones off. She tapped a foot against the
ground, slid her bottom along the slick skin, and stayed atop it. The horizon jumped and danced, her
stomach lurched, but she only needed a second.
Slashing hard at the end of her arm, she sheared the skin along the ridge where Sunbright's mighty
sword Harvester was strapped across his back. The wicked slash parted the flesh so it wept white
ichor, though the ends immediately began to close. But Knucklebones's clever hands had done their
work. Seizing the two-handed, leather-wrapped pommel, she yanked it free of the scabbard, a sword
nearly as long as she was tall. As the heavy, back-hooked nose pulled free, the lurker's wound had
already sealed around the blade, and Knucklebones cut it anew by drawing the blade.
Sliced twice, the tundra beast pitched her off with a sideways lurch. The small thief tumbled to
hammered snow hard enough to jar her teeth, but she retained her grip on the huge sword.
Instantly she rolled to her feet, held the long blade high despite its great weight, and raced after the
snow lurker again. The twin cuts she'd made were already invisible. She prayed Sunbright hadn't