"Paul S. Kemp - Erevis Cale 3 - Midnight's Mask" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kemp Paul S)

 CHAPTER 1


THE BEST LAID PLANS



Plummeting from the tower, Cale perceived the
moment stretching. Air roared past his ears.
Shadows poured from his ямВesh, no doubt trailing
after his fall like the tail of a comet.
Above him sounded the despondent, furious
wail of the Skulls and the crack of breaking
stone. The cavern was falling to pieces, smash-
ing the ruined Netherese city on the cavern ямВoor.
Lightning and a baleful green beam split the air
beside himтАФill-aimed spells from the Skulls.
Beside him, Magadon and Jak shouted as they
fell. He clutched each of their cloaks in one of
his hands. They clutched at him, whatever they
could grab. The shadows leaking from his ямВesh
coalesced, enshrouded them.
The ямВoor of the collapsing cavern rushed up to
meet them. The moment was stretched to its limit; it was
ending. Cale had to act or die alongside his friends.
Cale felt the darkness around him the same way he felt
the airтАФa tangible sensation on his skin. Its touch was as
light and seductive as that of a lover. He always felt the
darkness now.
Opening his mind, he attuned himself to the cor-
respondence between the Prime Plane and the Plane of
Shadow, the link that lived in every shadow. He reached
for it, took it in his mental grasp and willed them all to
move from one plane to the other. At the same time, he
consciously dispelled the inertia of their fall.
Sound fell away. Darkness swallowed them. In the
span of a heartbeat they moved between worlds.
They found themselves lying face down on the cold,
damp stone of the Plane of Shadow. The Skulls were
gone; the ruins were gone. They were alone in the dark,
but alive.
The breath of his friends came in ragged gasps. The
slow drip of water sounded from somewhere. The air
smelled dank, pungent with some vague foulness.
Cale remained still for a moment as stabs of pain shot
through his bodyтАФthe regenerative properties of his
shade ямВesh closing the wounds Riven had inямВicted on
him.
Riven.
Cale sat up, and as he did he remembered it all, or