"Raymond E. Feist - Faerie Tale" - читать интересную книгу автора (Feist Raymond E)

er's deep breathing. Patrick didn't share Sean's fear of the
dark. The first night Patrick had tried to bully his brother
out of the top bunkтАФthey had both wanted the novel
experience of sleeping that high off the groundтАФbut
Mom had prevented a fight and Sean had picked the
number closer to the one she had been thinking. Now
Sean wondered at the whim of chance that put him in the
top bed. Everything looked weird from up high.

The moon's glow came through the window, and the
light level rose and fell as clouds crawled slowly across
the sky, alternately plunging the room into deep gloom
and lightening to what seemed almost daylight. The
dancing shadows had an odd pattern Sean had come to
recognize.

Outside, an old elm tree rose beside the bedroom, its
branches swaying gently in the breeze. When the moon
was not obscured, the tree shadows became more dis-
tinct, making their own display. The thick leaves rustled
in the night wind, casting fluttering shadows that shifted
and moved around the room, shapes of ebon and grey
that capered in mad abandon, filling the night with men-
ace.

Sean watched the play of shadows with a thrill of dan-
ger that was almost delicious, a sweaty-palm-and-neck-
hairs-standing sort of feeling. Then something changed.
In the blackest part of the gloom, deep in the far corner,
something moved. Sean felt his chest tighten as cold
gripped his stomach. Moving in the wrong rhythm,
against the flow of greys and blacks, it was coming to-
ward the boys' bunk beds.

"Patrick," Sean repeated loudly. His brother stirred
and made a sleepy sound as the shape began to slither
along the floor. It would move a beat, weaving its way
across the carpet, then pause, and Sean strained his eyes

to see it, for when it was still, it would vanish. For long,
agonizing moments he couldn't see any hint of motion,
then just when he finally relaxed, thinking it gone or an
illusion, it would stir again. The maddeningly indistinct
shape approached the bed slowly, at last disappearing
below the foot of the bunks, out of Sean's view.

"Patrick!" Sean said, scooting backward to the corner
of the bunk farthest from the creeping shadow. Then he
heard a sound of claws upon wood, as something climbed
the old bedpost. Sean held his breath. Two clawlike