"George R. R. Martin - In the House of the Worm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin George R R)

"Why not?├втВмтАв Vermyllar was demanding. ├втВм┼УYou heard him. He called me an animal, and I am the
grandson of a man who might have been Manworm."
Annelyn waved him quiet. ├втВм┼УYou will have your revenge,├втВмтАв he said. ├втВм┼УBut my way, my way.├втВмтАв
His deep blue eyes stared across the chamber. The Meatbringer was leading Caralee off toward a
corner. ├втВм┼УMy way,├втВмтАв he repeated. Then: ├втВм┼УCome.├втВмтАв And he led them from the room.
****
They met the next morning, early, amid the dust and fading tapestries of the seldom-used Undertunnel,
which connected most of the main burrows of the yaga-la-hai before curving away on its long descent
into infinity. Annelyn was the first to arrive. He was dressed all in shiny-smooth black, with a hood of the
same color to hide his bright hair. His only concession to vanity was a gold theta, embroidered on his
breast. A belt of black rope held both rapier and stiletto.

Riess soon materialized, in a tight-fitting shirt of mail and leather and a heavy cloak of spidergray. He and
Annelyn sat together on a stone floor across from a black mouth that belched hot, moist air at them
through a rusty grid. Light, such as there was, came from scattered torches set in bronze hands on the
walls, and from the windows├втВмтАЭnarrow slits in the ceiling, twenty feet above their heads├втВмтАЭthat leaked a
dim red radiance. The windows were set ten feet apart all along the Undertunnel, until it began to sink.
Once, as a boy, Annelyn had piled junk high in the middle of a burrow and climbed to look out, but there
had been nothing to see├втВмтАЭthe glass, even as the stone of the walls, was thicker than a man is tall. It was
fortunate that any light got through.

Vermyllar was late. Annelyn sat cross-legged, his eyes on the hanging tapestries whose images had all
turned to mottled gray. Riess was very excited. He was talking about imaginative tortures they could
inflict on the Meatbringer. ├втВм┼УWhen we catch him, we should hang him upside down by running cords
through his ankles,├втВмтАв the stout youth suggested. ├втВм┼УThen we can buy a pot of bloodworms from the
surgeon-priests and set them all over his body to drink him dry."

Annelyn let him prattle, and finally Vermyllar appeared, wearing black and gray and carrying a torch and
a long dagger. The other two sprang up to greet him.

"I should not have come,├втВмтАв Vermyllar said. His face was very drawn, but he seemed to relax a bit in
the presence of his friends. ├втВм┼УI am the great-grandson of the Manworm himself,├втВмтАв he continued,
sheathing his dagger while Riess took the torch from him, ├втВм┼Уand I should not listen to you, Annelyn. We
will all be eaten by grouns."

"The Meatbringer is not eaten by grouns, and he is only one while we are three together,├втВмтАв Annelyn
said. He started down the Undertunnel, toward the endless gray where the bands of red light no longer
striped the stone, and the others followed.

"Are you sure he comes this way?├втВмтАв Vermyllar asked. They passed another of the square black
mouths, and their cloaks stirred and flapped in its warm breath. Vermyllar gestured at the opening.
├втВм┼УPerhaps he climbs down one of those, to where the grouns live."

"They are very sheer and very hot,├втВмтАв Annelyn told him, ├втВм┼Уand he would fall or burn if he went that
way. Besides, many people have seen the Meatbringer come and go along the Undertunnel. I asked
among the torch-tenders."

They passed beneath the last window; ahead, the Undertunnel slanted down and the ceiling was
featureless. Vermyllar stopped in the zone of light.