"J. Robert King - Invasion Cycle 02 - Planeshift" - читать интересную книгу автора (King Robert J)

as best they could.
The MetathranтАФwho were forty of the fifty thousand
thereтАФformed a wall of powerstone pikes and glinting
armor. Commander Agnate stood in the vanguard. His
pike was set and his jaw as well. The tattoos that marked
his forehead and cheeks were drawn in tight drums. He had
lost his blood brother in the Battle of Koilos, and now,
staring down the converging armies, he knew he would lose
himself.
The Steel Leaf elves of Staprion gathered around
Commander Eladamri. He was Agnate's equal in battle
prowess and strategy. Square jawed and sharp eyed,
Eladamri and his lieutenant Liin Sivi had fought their way
out of Rath once. Now Rath had come back to them. They
beheld old terrors. The savage-shorn elves around them
had never before seen the red and tortured world. They
nocked arrows to long bows and braced for the charge.
Through slitted goggles, the Steel Leaf elves gazed at their
coming doom.
The dragons had been slower to rise than their warm-
blooded allies. As they roused, the old antagonism between
the disparate nations had slowed them too. Only the
ancient Shivan fire dragon Rhammidarigaaz could unite
them. He stood in their midst, his wise eyes drawing them.
The staff he held shone with a crimson power that warmed
the cold-blooded beasts. The magic talismans around his
neck sparked with possibility. Rhammidarigaaz need not
speak a word. He only spread wide his wings and heaved
himself up into the air. A surge of leathery skin, and
another, and he lifted away from the ground. Like a startled



7
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flock, the dragon nations took to the air. They circled the
camp, preparing for the all-out onslaught.
The Benalish irregulars meanwhile had crowded about
Weatherlight. Most of them were human warriors, rescued
from the military brig during the initial attack on Benalia.
Many others were military prisoners of various
configurations, goblin and ogre, dwarf and reptile, porcine
and bovine. Lastly were Tolarian helionauts and the pilots
of Benalia's ravaged air defenses. These troops lacked the
precision of the Metathran and elf forces, but they knew
how to fight with their backs to a wall, and they believed
in this ship and its commander: Gerrard.
Black bearded and bold, Gerrard stood now on the
forecastle deck beside Multani and Karn. He lifted his