"William Forstchen - Crystal Warriors 1 - Crystal Warriors" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forstchen William R)

Mokaoto looked at his men. "Nobuaki, Denzo, Kurosawa, Teruzo, and Takeo."

Ikawa looked at Mokaoto and said nothing. He knew Mokaoto picked Takeo as revenge. Takeo was
the go master of the company, and Ikawa had actually broken the barriers between officer and private
during the lonely months of garrison duty to indulge in his favorite game. Takeo had been like a younger
brother, but there was nothing to be done about it now.

"The rest of us move out," Ikawa shouted, and started to scramble up the narrow gorge. They had barely
gone fifty yards when the first shell screamed in and detonated at the opening to the pass.

Within minutes the shelling had stopped and a loud shout echoed up from the valley below. They were
advancing again. The enemy elevated his range and shells were soon impacting along the walls of the
gorge, driving the fugitives onward. After half an hour of steady climbing the party came out onto a small
plateau where Ikawa called a brief halt. Far below they could see a serpentine column weaving into the
gorge. Ikawa stepped out onto the edge of the plateau and looked up to the towering mountain. His
vision could trace the line of the trail as it climbed the slope, and with a cold shudder he realized that the
path did not go over the mountain. It simply led into a small canyon surrounded by cliffs. He called Mark
over to his side.

"Do you see where our trail leads?"

Mark studied the terrain for several minutes. "Once we get to the top of this gorge, we're trapped."

"Precisely."

Mark looked at Ikawa as if trying to gauge his reaction to impending death. There was no sign of
emotion and Ikawa could only hope that his own fear was not revealed, for he now knew how a
condemned prisoner must feel who could measure almost to the minute how much longer he would be
alive.


Chapter 2
Haven
Mornan was furious. She could sense that Danuth had given up completely aad was just playing along.
The bloody incompetent--she would call him to account later. The others had found nothing.

"Open up your search," she hissed. "Go farther out. Centra, you're supposed to be good with symbolic
matching--do a broader scan for large-winged forms. And feed your sensory returns to us all."

"Danuth, you damned fool, go to the outer edge of the Void and see if there are any demons feeding at
the focal points."

Masters! The thought whispered through them. It was the apprentice. I've found the image of a large
winged beast--and his mind flashed an image of a dragonlike creature--and I read a score or more
lifeforms nearby.
The boy wasn't supposed to be trying--he might misread the shadowy images from other realms--but
Mornan could not chastise him now. If he had found something, she would use it. Groaning with effort,
Mornan tried to sustain her barrier to prevent Allic's detection of them, but the power created by their
spell was leaking through in several places. An alert watcher could pick them up at any time.