"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 25 - Torian Pearls." - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

Small trees were completely stripped of bark to a height of six or eight feet. The remains of various
predators' victims lay thickly, some bare dry skeletons, others sending up ghastly smells of decay and
drawing ugly blue-green clouds of insects. In places the bodies lay so thick that Blade had to stuff leaves
in his nose to shut out the smell.
 The rising waters seemed to have driven the animals ahead of them. Now many times the usual animal
population of the forest was packed into it. They were carrying on a deadly struggle for food and living
space, and would be more than usually nervous and combative.

After another hour Blade found an untrampled stand of thorny bushes and broke off a long branch. The
branch wouldn't be much protection against anything larger than a house cat, but it could at least beat off
insects and snakes.

The insects swarmed still more thickly around Blade ad the sun rose higher in the sky and the sweat
poured down his body. He chewed on green leaves for their moisture and kept in the shade as much as
possible. Last night he'd been in danger of drowning in a waste of undrinkable water. Now he was
suffering from thirst in the middle of an apparently waterless forest.

As the afternoon passed the sky disappeared behind a screen of clouds. The clouds grew slowly thicker
and darker, and a breeze began to ruffle the leaves. The breeze became a wind that made the branches
and the smaller trees sway, gently at first. The wind blew deliciously cool on Blade's skin.

Thunder began to roll, rapidly coming closer and growing louder. The branches tossed more wildly, and
a dazzling glare flashed across the forest as lightning darted down from the clouds. As the thunder
rumbled away into silence Blade heard the crackling and crashing of a tree going over. Then all other
sounds were drowned out as the skies opened like the sluice gates of a dam and poured down rain on
the forest.

The rain stung Blade's bare skin like a hailstorm. He threw his head back until his open mouth was
turned to the sky, closed his eyes, and drank and drank and drank. As he drank, he felt the rain scouring
his skin free of sweat and dirt and the mashed bodies of countless insects.

He drank until he couldn't drink any more, then started on his way again. The rain settled into a steady
downpour, lashed across the forest like a whip by the wind. Thunder crashed and lightning flared and
crackled on all sides and directly overhead. Blade found he had to walk constantly looking upward, to
avoid being brained by falling branches and whole trees.

The rain was still pouring down when Blade stepped between two trees and found nothing but saplings
and low bushes ahead of him. He peered through the rain, one hand sheltering his eyes from the pelting
drops. After a hundred yards of saplings the ground was level, covered with ragged grass swaying in the
wind and stretching off to vanish behind the gray veil of the rain.

Blade stopped. There was no point in wandering aimlessly out onto the plain ahead to end up roaming in
circles. He could be at the very foot of the hills where he'd seen the lights, but they would be invisible until
the rain stopped.

Another hour, and the rain began to ease. It was like a series of curtains rising. As each curtain rose,
Blade could see a few hundred yards farther out into the gray twilight that was settling across the open
land.

Behind him the forest slowly began to come back to life, as Blade moved out into the open. He kept