"R A Salvatore - Icewind Dale Trilogy 1 - Crystal Shard, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Salvatore R. A)

"Al Dimeneira threw it."
"Threw it?"
"Across the planes, merciful master!" Telshazz cried. "With all of his
strength!"
"Across the very planes of existence!" Errtu growled.
"I tried to stop him, but . . ."
The horned head shot forward. Telshazz's words gurgled indecipherably as
Errtu's canine maw tore its throat out.

* * * * *

Far removed from the gloom of the Abyss, Crenshinibon came to rest upon
the world. Far up in the northern mountains of the Forgotten Realms the
crystal shard, the ultimate perversion, settled into the snow of a
bowl-shaped dell.
And waited.


BOOK 1:

Ten-Towns

1

The Stooge

When the wizards' caravan from the Hosttower of the Arcane saw the
snow-capped peak of Kelvin's Cairn rising from the flat horizon, they were
more than a little relieved. The hard journey from Luskan to the remote
frontier settlement known as Ten-Towns had taken them more than three
weeks.
The first week hadn't been too difficult. The troop held close to the
Sword Coast, and though they were traveling along the northernmost reaches
of the Realms, the summer breezes blowing in off the Trackless Sea were
comfortable enough.
But when they rounded the westernmost spurs of the Spine of the World,
the mountain range that many considered the northern boundary of
civilization, and turned into Icewind Dale, the wizards quickly understood
why they had been advised against making this journey. Icewind Dale, a
thousand square miles of barren, broken tundra, had been described to them
as one of the most unwelcoming lands in all the Realms, and within a single
day of traveling on the northern side of the Spine of the World, Eldeluc,
Dendybar the Mottled, and the other wizards from Luskan considered the
reputation well-earned. Bordered by impassable mountains on the south, an
expanding glacier on the east, and an unnavigable sea of countless icebergs
on the north and east, Icewind Dale was attainable only through the pass
between the Spine of the World and the coast, a trail rarely used by any
but the most hardy of merchants.
For the rest of their lives, two memories would ring clear in the
wizards' minds whenever they thought about this trip, two facts of life on