"Simon R. Green - Haven 06 - Bones of Haven" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)

both walls. He found it only too easy to visualize hundreds of tentacles suddenly lashing out from the
walls and ceiling, wrapping up victims in helpless bundles and dragging them off to the waiting
stomach.

Eventually, the tendrils dragged the body into a dark opening in the wall. Winter gestured quickly for
everyone to stay where they were. Barber lowered the unconscious madman to the floor, and stretched
easily. He wasn't even breathing hard. Winter moved slowly forward to peer into the opening, and the
others moved quietly in behind her, careful not to crowd each other so that they could still retreat in a
hurry if they had to. The silver light from the corridor shone brightly behind them, and Hawk's lip
curled in disgust at the sight ahead. The narrow stone cell was filled with a soft, pulsating mass of
mold and fungi studded with lidless, staring eyes that burned with a horrid awareness. Sheets of gauzy
cobwebs anchored the mass to the walls and ceiling, and frayed away in questing tendrils. As the team
watched, two of the tendrils dropped Johnny Nobody's writhing body onto the central mass, and a
dozen snapping mouths opened, crammed with grinding yellow teeth. They tore the body apart and
consumed it in a matter of seconds.

"Damn," said Winter. "We've lost another one."

"So much for Johnny Nobody," said Barber quietly. "Poor Johnny, we hardly knew you."

"I don't know about you," said Hawk quietly to Winter, "but it seems to me that swords and axes aren't
going to be much use against something like that. You could hack at it for hours and still not know if
you'd hit anything vital."

"Agreed," said Winter. "Luckily, we should still have one incendiary left." She looked at Barber, who
nodded quickly, and produced another of the glowing stones from his pouch. Winter nodded, and
looked back at the slowly pulsating mass before her. "When you're ready, Barber, throw the incendiary
into one of those mouths. As soon as the damned thing's swallowed it, everyone turn and run like a
fury. I'm not sure what effect an incendiary will have on a creature like that, but I don't think we should
hang around to find out. And BarberтАФdon't miss. Or you're fired."

He grinned, murmured the activating Word, and tossed the glowing stone into one of the snapping
mouths. It went in easily, and Crawling Jenny swallowed the incendiary reflexively. The SWAT team
turned as one and bolted back down the corridor, Barber pausing just long enough to sling the
unconscious madman over his shoulder again. A muffled explosion went off behind them, like a roll of
faraway thunder, quickly drowned out by a deafening keening that filled the narrow corridor as the
creature screamed with all its many mouths. A blast of intense heat caught up with the running figures
and passed them by. Hawk flinched instinctively, but Storm's magic protected them.

Rivulets of flame ran along the walls and ceiling, hungrily consuming the thick cobwebs. Burning
tendrils thrust out of the furry mass and lashed blindly at the running SWAT team. Hawk and Fisher
cut fiercely at the tendrils, slicing through them easily. Burning lengths of cobwebs fell to the corridor
floor, writhing and twisting as the flames consumed them. Charred and darkened masses of cobwebs
fell limply from the wall and ceiling as a thick choking smoke filled the corridor. Storm suddenly
stumbled to a halt, and the others piled up around him.

"What is it?" yelled Hawk, struggling to be heard over the screaming creature and the roaring of the
flames.

"The exit's just ahead," yelled Storm, "but something's got there before us."