"Feist, Raymond E - The Riftwar Legacy 02 - Krondor- The Assassins" - читать интересную книгу автора (Feist Raymond E)

11 ONE

Escape The sounds of pursuit echoed through the dark tunnels.

Limm was nearly out of breath from attempting to evade those determined
to kill him. The young thief prayed to Ban-ath, God of Thieves, that
those who followed were not as knowledgeable about the sewers of Krondor
as he was. He knew he could not outrun them or fight them; his only hope
was to outwit them.

The boy knew that panic was the enemy, and he struggled against the
terrible fear that threatened to reduce him to a frightened child,
clinging to anything that might provide warm comfort while he huddled in
the shadows, waiting for the men who would kill him. He paused for a
moment at an intersection of two large channels and then took off to the
left, feeling his way through the gloom of the deep sewers, his only
illumination a small, shuttered lantern. He kept the sliding window
closed to the narrowest setting, for he needed only the slightest light
to know which way to go. There were sections of the sewer in which light
filtered down from above, through culverts, gratings, broken street
stones, and other interstices. A little light went a long way to guide
him through the stinking byways under the city. But there were

12 also areas of total darkness, where he would be as blind as one born
without eyes.

He reached a narrowing of the sewer, where the circumference of the
circular tunnel grew smaller, serving to slow the flow of sewage through
this area. Limm thought of it as a "dam", of sorts. He ducked to avoid
hitting his head on the smaller opening, his bare feet splashing through
the filthy water which collected at the end of the larger sewer until
the level rose up enough to funnel down the rough and rusty narrow pipe.

Spreading his legs, Limm moved in a rocking motion, his feet high up on
the side of the circular passage, for he knew that in less than ten feet
a nasty outfall sent waste to a huge channel twenty feet below. Hard
calluses kept the jagged build-up of sediment on the stonework from
slicing open his soles. The boy shuttered the lantern as he intersected
a tunnel with long lines of sight; he knew exactly where he was and was
fearful of even the smallest light being seen by his pursuers. He moved
by touch around a corner and entered the next passage. It was hundreds
of feet long, and even the faintest spark would be visible from one end
to the other.

Hurrying as best he could in this awkward fashion, he felt the tug of
air as the water fell below him from a hole in the pipe he was in,
splashing noisily. Several other nearby outfalls also emptied in this