"Ed Greenwood - Forgotten Realms - Elminster 2 - Elminster In Myth Drannor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenwood Ed)

the scratched device of a serpent rising to strike.
"Have ye ever seen the like?" Hauntokh gloated. "Aye, Naglarn?" He turned his head, gaze
sweeping across the Red Blade adventurers, who were leaning forward so far in their hunger and wonder
that they were almost out of their chairs, and looked at his rival prospector.
 "And thee, Surgath?" he charged. "Have ye brought back anything to match half o' this, hey?"
"Well, now," the other bearded, weatherbeaten man said, scratching his head. "Well, now." He
shifted in his seat, bringing one booted foot up onto the table, while Karlmuth Hauntokh chuckled,
enjoying his moment of clear superiority.
And then the ragtag prospector drew something long and thin out of his raised boot, and grew a
grin to match Karlmuth's own. He hadn't many teeth left, El noticed.
"I wasn't goin' to lord it over thee, Hauntokh," he said jauntily. "No, that's not Surgath Ilder's
road. Quiet and sure, that's my way ... quiet and sure." He held up the long, thin cylinder, and laid his
hand on the crumpled black silk that shrouded it. "I've been in the Elanvae too," he drawled, "seein' what
pelts-an' treasure- might come my way. Now years ago-probably afore you were born, Hauntokh, I
wouldn't doubt-"
The larger prospector snarled, but his eyes never left the silk-shrouded object.
"--I learned that when you're in a hurry, and in elven woods, you can generally find both those
things, beasts and loot together, in one place: a tomb."
If the room had been hushed before, that last word made it strainingly silent.
"It's the one place that hunting elves tend to leave be, y'see," Surgath continued. "So if y'don't
mind fighting for your life every so often, you might-just might-be lucky enough to find something like
this." He jerked the silk away.
There was a murmur, and then silence again. The prospector was holding a chased and fluted
silver rod. One of its ends tapered into a wavering tongue like a stylized flame, and the other ended in a
sky-blue gem as large as the gaping mouth of the nearest Red Blade adventurer. In between, a slender,
almost lifelike dragon curled around the barrel of the scepter, its eyes two glowing gems. One was green,
and one amber- and at the tip of its curling tail was yet another gem-stone, this one ale-brown in hue.
Elminster stared at it for some seconds before remembering to raise his tankard and cover the
eagerness in his face. Something like that, now, if he had to duel with elven guards, would come in very
handy indeed ... It was elven work, had to be, that smooth and beautiful. What powers did it have, now?
"This here scepter," Surgath said, waving it-there was a gasp and a clatter, then, as Rose came
into the room with a platter of hot tarts, and dropped them on her own toes in startled amazement-"was
laid to rest with a lord of the elves, I'm thinking, two thousand summers ago, or more. Now, he liked to
play at impressing folk-just like certain lazy, loose-tongued retired prospectors I can rest my eyes on,
right now! So he could make this here rod do things. Watch."
His awed audience saw him touch one of the dragon's eyes at the same time as he touched the
large gem in the butt of the scepter. A light flashed as he pointed it at Karlmuth Hauntokh-who
whimpered and dove for the floor, shivering in fear.
Surgath threw back his head and guffawed. "Less fear, Hauntokh," he laughed. "Stop your
groveling. That's all it does, y'see: throw off that light."
Elminster shook his head slightly, knowing the scepter must be doing more than that-but only one
pair of eyes in that room noticed the unshaven youth's reaction.
As the rival prospector rose into view again, mounting anger in his eyes, Surgath added grandly,
"Ah, but there's more."
He pressed the dragon's other eye and the butt-gem in unison-and a beam leapt across the
taproom and sent Elminster's tankard spinning. The young man watched it clatter along the wall, smoking,
and his eyes narrowed.
"We're not done yet," Surgath said gaily, as the beam died out and the tankard rolled out of the
room. "There's this, yet!"
He touched the tail-gem and the butt-gem, this time, and the result was a humming sphere of blue