"Tara K. Harper - Wolfwalker 2 - Shadow Leader" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harper Tara K)

Aranur, rolling to his feet, stabbed at a drape of several
runners before clearing the air of the sticky vines. "Moon-
worms," he muttered again.
 The sap from the vines slid down Dion's blade onto the
pommel and stung her skin where it mixed with her sweat. She
pulled her hand free, wiping it on her leggings; Aranur, glanc-
ing up at the trees, yanked her abruptly back from a vine that
dropped suddenly down. It swayed back and forth, searching
blindly for its prey. The buds at the ends of its runners opened
to expose suckerlike mouths. They smacked obscenely in the
air as they twisted to and fro, curling up as they sought out their
meal above the ground as well as on it.
The wolf growled at the growth, her mind primal with the
instinct of a hunter, and Dion stared at the shuddering brush.
"The whole grove around us is alive," she said in disbelief.
"The whole hill."
Aranur shook his head, looking back as well. "Damn, but
that's impressive," he returned as he faced the hungry green
curtain.
The Gray One whined, and Dion gripped its fur while she
glared at Aranur. "What's impressive is the way you take
chances," she said sharply. "Those vines were as thick as my
wrist. They could have dragged you up before I could have cut
anything."
He grinned. "They're hungry. The game must be almost
gone from this area. Besides, you're hardly one to talk, Dion.
You're the reason we're out here anyway."
They wasted no more time trying for silence. Instead, they
quickly shoved and cut their way through the brush. Hishn led
and the two fighters followed, ducking into game trails and
then cutting across the rocks and rises that blocked their way.
Finally they strode up a steep hillside of thick needles and dead
ferns that was shaded from the gray sky by the deep canopy of
evergreens. There they stopped. Before them, a rounded cliff
of granite rose thirty meters, covered in a blanket of moss.
Aranur looked quickly around, gauging the movement of the
masa behind them while searching for a way around the cliff.
But Hishn whined and raised her paws up against the moss.
Dion, soothing the gray beast, moved up beside the wolf and
scraped a chunk of the greenery off the cliff. Underneath the
growth, deep cracks edged smoothly back into the cliff where
the water had run down for thousands of years. She made a
face. The moss was thick with bugs. Even as she stripped
another quilt of soft growth from the hidden crack, a clump of
beetles blew suddenly out from the naked stone and buffeted
her cheeks and hair before diving back into the undisturbed
moss to the side. "Moonwormed bugs," she muttered, snort-
ing and blinking to get them off her face. She tore another
chunk of the green away and, with a grimace, reached into the
crack.