"Richard A. Knaak - Dragonlance - Lost Histories 4 - Land of the Minotaurs" - читать интересную книгу автора (Knaak Richard A)

"Just mouthing a few harmless thoughts, Elder." Why was this other so concerned about what he had
said?

"Suit yourself." The other peered at him. "Been away for a while have you? Far away?"

"Far enough."

"Come in on a ship?"

He had not, but for some reason Hecar decided to nod. "Long voyage."

"Was it? Probably you had better luck on your voyage than I had on my last, BoyтАж Which ship was
that?"

"Gladiator," Hecar immediately replied, hoping his inquisitive companion did not know that the remains
of that particular ship rotted away at the bottom of the sea. He shifted his weight, adding, "I've business
to attend to.

Elder. May your ancestors guide you."

"And may yours guide you, Boy."

The old minotaur seemed innocent enough, but Hecar did not relax his guard. He had the distinct notion
that he had been questioned for some reason. Perhaps he was just being paranoid. He had, after all, spent
several days of travel worrying about the rumors and rumblings of the minotaurs who had joined the
settlement.

Yet, more than ever, Hecar was certain that something was different in the empire, something that had
not yet come to fruition but which held the potential for disaster.

His quickened pace brought him to his destination sooner than he expected. The dwelling was of the
modest type that a minotaur who had reached a respectable status would choose. Like most minotaur
dwellings, it was little more than a cube-shaped structure, two stories tall and surrounded in front by a


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stone wall about three feet high. A wooden plaque bore the sign of that minotaur's clan house and his
own personal marks.

Modest though it was, it was still more extravagant than the sort of dwellings lower-ranking minotaurs
inhabited. Those dwellings, deeper in the core of the city and generally near the smaller arenas, were,
more often than not, squat, single-room apartments of an unremarkable gray stone. They were stacked
six high in some places, more than a dozen per floor, and were not as immaculate as the rest of the city.
The inhabitants, usually striving to achieve better status, rarely considered those places permanent
homes.

Hecar was glad that he had chosen to live in the barracks of the great clan house. In return for three
years' guard service, he had been given a clean, small abode. Granted some of his bedmates had not been