"Ed Greenwood - Band of Four 04 - The Dragon's Doom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenwood Ed)

Hawkril Anharu was a gentle giant of a man, unless one crossed blades with
him in battle. He carried their captive as lightly as if the man weighed
nothing, and had to stoop and turn his broad shoulders at an angle to pass
through the narrow door of the cell. He resembled an amiable bull in armor
more than anything else.
The formerly raven-dark hair of the older armored man behind Hawkril was
going gray and white now, but Ezendor BlackgultтАФonce infamous across Asmarand
as "the Baron Blackgult," a dashing warcaptain, decadent noble, and seducer of
ladies high and lowтАФwas still handsome ... and every bit as alert, as they
moved through the dungeons, as Craer at the front of the band.
A radiance far paler than the torchlight flickered about their captive's
headтАФthe light of magic, lancing forth from a molded stone carried in the palm
of a tall, slender woman who walked at the rear of the group. Above a slight
frown, her eyes were also fixed upon her captive.
Embra Silvertree had once been best known as "the Lady of Jewels" for her
elaborately decorated gowns, but she much preferred the simple leather
breeches, warriors' boots, and open silk shirt she was wearing now. Her long,
dark hair swirled untamed down her back as if it was a half-cloak, and men
best knew her now in Aglirta as the most powerful sorceress in the land.
Like the others who walked with her, she was an Overduke of AglirtaтАФand like
them, she was carrying out a distasteful but necessary duty this day. Her gaze
never left their dark-robed captive as Hawkril swung the frozen-limbed man
uprightтАФboots uppermostтАФas if he weighed no more than the petals of a flower.
Craer and the Baron Blackgult deftly plucked and fitted dangling manacles,
the slender procurer trying the smaller key Thannaso had surrendered to him in
each cuff. They locked and unlocked flawlessly, and with a nod to the baron,
Craer fitted them to the arms of their captive, then accepted Blackgult's
cupped hands to boost him to where the procurer could reach higher manacles,
and so secure their captive upside down to the great wheel on the cell wall.
 A tremor ran through those limbs as they were securedтАФgods, but the man must
be part dragon, to struggle so in the thrall of Dwaer-magic! тАФand Embra let
out a sigh of pain. Hawkril gave her a quick glance as he stepped back from
the chained man, but she gave him a reassuring smile through the ribbons of
sweat now running freely down her face.
"I'm ready," the shorter, darker woman murmured at Embra's elbow, and the
sorceress gasped and nodded, gesturing to her to proceed. Tshamarra Talasorn
smoothly cast a spell, stepping forward at the end of her weaving to hold her
spread hands on either side of the chained man's head-just outside the
flickering aura of Embra's Dwaer-spun magic.
That light promptly faded and DiedтАФonly to be replaced by a brighter, more
golden radiance flooding from Tshamarra's fingers.
"Spare your trouble," the chained man said, more wearily than bitterly. "I'm
not going to try anythingтАФnot with a Dwaer-Stone that can blast me to
spatters, or cook my mind like spittle sizzling into a fire, close enough to
almost brush my nose. I'm guilty of occasional ambition, not utter
foolishness."
"Indeed. Wizards rise and fall in the Vale as the years pass," Baron
Blackgult said, "and the Serpent returns, and the Faceless and outlander mages
alike clash and schemeтАФand yet the Master of Bats lives on. Powerful enough to
hurl back those who'd seize your power by force, and wise enough not to step