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

would be beside him as he forced himself back into a jog.
The wolfwalker sucked a last deep breath of air, then fell
into step, far enough behind Aranur that the branches he
whipped back did not snap at her. She was glad she had left her
pack at morning camp with her brother. As thick as the brush
was and as fast as they were moving, a pack would only snag
and trip her on the boughs, leaving signs for everyone to see.
Gray One, she called, are you near?
The pack runs, the wolf returned. I lead.
Hishn's voice had a shadow of its own, and Dion knew that
the wolf had been joined by another of her kind. Tell the Gray
One that he honors usтАФ Her thought broke off as her ankle
gave out suddenly in a soft patch of earth, and she shut her
mind abruptly to the sharp senses of the wolf; she could not
tell, with both pair of eyes, which branches and stones would
trip her first. She must be more careful. If Aranur was right and
Longear's scouts were near, Dion's tracks could be the ones
that betrayed them.
 Hishn growled. Run toward the second moon. The brush is
clear, the path well worn.
Dion nodded. "Aranur," she called. "Cut over to the east.
The ground should be more clear."
She could not tell If he nodded his own answer, but ahead of
her he was already cutting to their left, leading the way beneath
trees that grew taller with each stride they took. There the
shade deepened again, and the brush grew sparse until a dim
trail crossed their feet in a fork. One path led north, the other
northeast. But at last the air was clear of the cloying scent of
the masa, and Aranur spared only a glance at the trees. If there
was no danger of masa to the wolves, there should be none to
the humans, or Dion would have warned him. He paused and
looked back, waiting for the wolfwalker to catch up. He nod-
ded at the path.
"That way," she said, pointing at the northeast fork and
having time to catch her breath only once before he led off at
a quicker pace. She glanced back. Hishn was near: she could
sense it. Of the masa, there was no sign.
They could see almost twenty meters through the trees, and
Aranur jogged only to the top of" the next gully before stopping
again. His eyes took in the forest right and left, and he listened
carefully, while Dion, coming alongside, again caught her
breath. "We can walk," he said finally. "Hishn?"
She glanced east, her eyes unfocused for a moment. "A few
minutes away," she said finally. "But the Gray Ones say that
the last growth circle of masa is two gullies behind us."
"If the masa was this thick here, there might be more along
the way, and Gamon probably went on ahead with the others.
He might need us."
Dion said nothing at the unspoken criticism, but when Ara-
nur began to hike, she set her feet in a jog again, and he, with