"Robert Jordan - Conan The Indomitable" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jordan Robert)

"Why should he, when you made such a likely target?"

"The two of you would do well together," Conan said. "You have so much in common."
Elashi chose to be offended by this, which surprised Conan not at all. Hardly anything she did surprised
him of late. When they arrived in their room, for instance, she lay against him under the inn's rough
blanket, touching him and laughing softlyтАж as if they had been newly wed that same morning. He shook
his head, not understanding, but not minding this in the least.


Three

Deep in the twisted bowels of the Grotterium Negrotus, Katamay Rey once again called upon the slab
of enchanted quartz. Under the dank-green fungal glow, the wizard scried, searching the depths of crystal
stone for the future.

The clear rock became milky, then slowly cleared near one end, and the face of a man appeared. Strong
featured, with black hair and fiery blue eyes, the man's face peered unseeingly back at Rey, unaware of
being observed.

Rey made mystical passes over the quartz, but the remainder of the crystal refused to lose its milky hue.
He tried several times, but nothing more than the face of the young man appeared.

"Set blast you, you cursed stone!"

The quartz did not seemed, frightened by this threat; indeed, as if in response to the curse, even the face
pictured therein faded, leaving the crystal once again blank.

Cursing further, Rey turned away from the obstinate crystal. Well, he thought, at least he had something:
the danger to his domain seemed to be centered in that youthful face. Now he could prepare to deal with
it.

"Wikkell!"

At the sound of the wizard's voice, something shuffled ponderously across the damp stone floor. Half
again the size of a large man, the figure shambled into the eerie green light. It bore a single pink eye set in
the middle of its sloping forehead, and upon its back, a hump, much like those worn by the
desert-roaming beasts of the Southern Wastes bordering Punt and Stygia. Bald it was, but bearded, and
dense muscle corded its arms and legs. The hunchback was naked save for a groin cloth; the knuckles of
its hands nearly touched the stone under its splayed feet as it shuffled into sight.

"Master," the hunchbacked Cyclops said. It had a voice like sail canvas being torn.

"Go to the Northern Chambers," Ray said, "and prepare a reception for anyone who ventures to cross
the land above. I will have any who dare the forbidden paths brought before me."

"Master," Wikkell said by way of acknowledgment. He bowed slightly, causing his hands to scrape the
floor, and turned to leave.

"Alive," Rey said to the retreating form. "I want them alive."