"David Farland - Runelords 4 - The Lair of Bones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farland David)

held out in salute. Drummers and trumpeters acted as heralds.

The army rode as victors from the south, through the blasted lands that had been decimated by reaver's
spells. The reavers, who spoke in odors, left their curses clinging to the soldiers and their mounts: "Rot, O
children of men. Become as dry as dust. Breathe no more."

Even now, the smells brought Raj Ahten a vision of the giant reavers charging over the landscape. With
their four legs and two arms, they looked something like enormous mantises. In their fore-claws, some
wielded staves carved of stone, or enormous blades, or long iron poles with reaping hooks. The earth
rumbled beneath the horde as it charged, while clouds of gree flapped and whirled above the reavers,
squeaking like bats.

At the very head of Raj Ahten's army, his men brought a trophy: four bull elephants dragged a wagon

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 Lair of Bones The

laden with the head of a massive reaver, a fell mage. It was an awesome sight. At four tons, the head
spanned wider than the wagon. The leathery skin grew as dark as the back of a crocodile, and the fell
mage's gaping mouth revealed row upon row of teeth, each a pale green crystal, with some of the larger
canines being as long as a child's arm. She had no eyes or ears. Along the lower ridges of her jaws, and
again atop the bony plates that constituted the bulk of her spade-shaped head, her philia--her only visible
sensory organs--swung like gravid dead eels with each jolt of the wagon.

Behind the elephants, near the head of the army, came Raj Ahten himself, the Sun Lord. He lay back on
pillows, dressed in a gleaming white silk jacket, the traditional armor of old Indhopal, as slaves carried his
palanquin. A screen of lavender silk hung like gossamer, hiding his face from his adoring subjects.

To each side of the palanquin, in a place of honor, rode four flameweavers. For now, they held their
fires in check so that only thin vapors of smoke issued from their nostrils. Fire had burned away any trace
of hair from their bodies, so that all four men were completely bald. The graceful smoothness of their
scalps hinted at their power, and a strange light glimmered in their eyes even at night, like the twinkle of a
distant star. They wore scintillating robes in shades of flame--the bright scarlet of the forge and the
mellow gold of the campfire.

Raj Ahten felt connected to them now. They served a common master. He could almost hear their
thoughts, drifting about like smoke.

His troops passed between a pair of huge golden censers where fires had burned continuously for a
hundred years. This marked the beginning of the Avenue of Kings. As soon as his palanquin reached
them, a thunderous cheer rose from the city.

Ahead, crowds had massed along the avenue to do obeisance. His people had strewn the streets with
rose petals and white lotus blossoms, so that as the elephants walked, crushing the petals, a sweet
fragrance wafted up. Sweeter to him still was the smell of scented oils burning in a hundred thousand
lamps.

The crowd wildly cheered their savior. A throng had gathered to greet him, citizens of Maygassa and
refugees from the south, more than three million strong.