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

wing twitched momentarily into view, and then its owner exploded out of the
other side of the manacleтАФand burst into blood that became threads of smoke in
an instant, as Embra frowned, waved a hand, and her Dwaer flashed.
Anger darkened the face of the chained man, but he launched no futile
struggle this time. Craer drove forth the other two bats, and they met similar
ends. "He can fashion more of them from this, can't he?" he murmured, plucking
at the wizard's dark and much-crumpled robes, and holding up his knife
meaningfully, but Embra shook her head.
"No, Craer," she said. "I'm not going to be so cruel as to leave a man bared
down here, to shiver in the dark and be dead in two hand-counts of days."
"No," the wizard told her flatly, "you're only going to be cruel enough to
let me starve here, forgotten, until my bones fall out of these chains one by
one onto yon floorтАФunless, of course, this dungeon has crawling gnaw-worms or
other little welcoming beasts who'll come out to feed as soon as you take the
torch away."
"I've almost as little liking for this as you do," Ezendor Blackgult told
him heavily, "believe me. Or not, as is your right. You'll be fed regularly,
rotated upright, and we will visit you from time to time, to ask questionsтАФand
perhaps, if your manner permits it, share news with you of events in the
Vale."
"You realize," the wizard asked calmly, eyes moving from face to face, "how
dangerous a foe you're making, don't you?"
"Huldaerus," the Lady Silvertree replied coolly, "we know how dangerous a
foe you already are. You may have forgotten your casual cruelties at Indraevyn
and sinceтАФas they seem to matter so little to youтАФbut I haven't."
Eyes that held coiling flames of fury fixed on hers, but their owner's voice
was as icily calm as Embra's as he responded, "And so 'tis time for you to
practice casual cruelties upon me now, is that it?"
"I can cast a spell upon you that will keep you in dreams, if you desire,"
the Lady of jewels replied gently. "It will seem as if no time is passing, in
the times when you're not being actively roused by someone."
"No," the Master of Bats said firmly, "I would rather hang here and brood.
Perhaps I can come to see my folly and even to embrace King Raulin
Castlecloaks in my heart, if you leave me here long enough. Perhaps."
"You're refusing a spell of dream-sleep," Tshamarra Talasorn asked
carefully. "Are you sure you want to do that, Master Wizard?"
"Quite sure, Lady," the upside-down man chained to the wheel replied
politely. "I am the King's captive, arrested and brought here to my
imprisonment by his loyal overdukes, my freedom taken from me to make Aglirta
the safer. I want time to think on that."
"Very well. We shall depart, and leave you to it," the Baron Blackgult said,
and turned away.
Craer watched the chained man carefully, and saw what he'd expected:
Huldaerus open his mouth to say somethingтАФanythingтАФto keep their company
longer. Thereafter followed the next thing he'd expected to see: the wizard
close his mouth again without saying a word, and smooth his face over into
careful inscrutability once more.
Oh, yes, the Master of Bats was good at what he did. Conferring with a few
swift, wordless glances, the Band of Four and Tshamarra reached agreement and
paced to the cell door together. Hawkril and Craer drifted to the rear, hands