"Elizabeth Haydon - Symphony of Ages - Threshold" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haydon Elizabeth)

Street after street, building after mudbrick building revealed no one living, only broken remains. There
were decidedly more bodies in the Gated City than they had found elsewhere in the westlands, too many
to burn or even pray over.

As they ran from lintel to lintel, from post to pillar, they called into the empty corridors and banged on the
walls and stairs to rouse anyone in the upper floors or lofts, but only managed to disturb nests of rats,
roosting birds, and packs of feral cats ripping out what little they could scrounge from the charnel.

Finally Anais, who had clambered from rooftop to rooftop through much of the city, climbed down and
stood in the middle of the street before an interior wall that ran perpendicular to the rest of the buildings,
sealing the Outer Ring from the dark streets that lay beyond it. A black wrought-iron gate shaped like a
giant keyhole was broken off its hinges, the metal twisted with a savage ferocity. Anais bent over at the
waist, panting from exertion and frustration.

тАЬThe Inner Ring must begin here,тАЭ he said between breaths. тАЬYou are going to want to go in, arenтАЩt you,
Hector?тАЭ

тАЬYes.тАЭ

Anais sighed. тАЬOf course. A waste of valuable air to have asked in the first place. Be so good as to allow
me a moment to catch my breath. I am growing too old for this nonsense.тАЭ

Hector said nothing.What I would give if only you had the chance to grow old, Anais, he thought.

тАЬSunтАЩs descending,тАЭ Cantha said, shading her eyes with her long-fingered hand and staring into the
all-but-impenetrable mist. тАЬTwo hours and тАЩtwill be beyond the horizon.тАЭ

тАЬRight; thirty minutesтАЩ more search at most, then,тАЭ Hector said, nodding his head at Jarmon to pull the
twisted portal open. тАЬAnd let us stay together in here. This was, in its day, a largely evil enclave, the
closest place to the Vault of the Underworld that existed on this Island; we donтАЩt want to make a
misstep.тАЭ

Quickly they pulled themselves through the portal, avoiding the jagged metal, and stepped for the first
time in any of their lives into the streets of the Inner Ring.

It was stunning in its dullness.

The buildings in what had once been one of the darkest corners of the world were no different than they
had been in the Outer Ring, or even in the more populated parts of the westlands, for that matter. The
streets here were, if possible, even quieter than they had been in the outside world, even more devoid of
anything valuable left behind. The buildings stood, unmolested, appearing for all the world as pedestrian
as the buildings of KingstonтАЩs residential area. The only discernible difference was the proximity of them;
they crowded each other for space, squeezing next to each other on narrow streets. Ropes hung
intermittently from windows, tying the streets closely together in the air above the ground as well.

Hector pulled aside a half door that hung from only one hinge and peered into the recesses of a
dilapidated shop.