"Dennis L. McKiernan - The Silver Call 2 - The Brega Path" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKiernan Dennis L)

War, a chronicle more commonly known as The Raven Book.
The Dwarves were seeking to glean from the 'Book whatever detail it held of
Kraggen-cor, the ancient undermountain homeland their ancestors had fled more
than a thousand years earlier when the dreaded Gargon was inadvertently set
free. But the Gargon had been slain during the Winter War, and the Dwarves now
sought once again to take possession of their ancestral Realm.
But Kraggen-cor remained infested with SpaunenтАФevil maggot-folk that had begun
once more to raid and pillage nearby steads, and to slay the innocent.
Enraged, the Dwarves planned to invade Kraggen-cor to root out the evil; but
their knowledge of their ancient homeland was fragmentary at best. However,
231 years in the past, during the Winter War, four heroesтАФa Man, an Elf, a
Dwarf, and a WarrowтАФhad passed through Kraggen-cor from Dusk-Door to
Dawn-Gate, and their tale was recorded in The Raven Book. Hence, to increase
their knowledge of the ways in Kraggen-cor and thus improve their odds in the
coming struggle with the Spawn, the two Dwarf visitors,"Anval and Bonn
Ironfist, guided by the Man, Lord Kian, had come to the Boskydells to read the
account for themselves.
The Raven Book did indeed contain the tale of the Four
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Who Strode Through Kraggen-cor, but the story was of marginal help to the
visitors. Oh, the tale did yield valuable information, telling that the
condition of the two known ways into Kraggen-cor would make the invasion most
difficult: On one side of the Grimwall Mountains, the western entranceтАФ the
Dusk-DoorтАФmay have been broken and buried under tons of rubble by a hideous
Kraken living in a black lake warding the portal. And on the opposite side of
the Grimwall, the eastern entranceтАФthe Dawn-GateтАФappeared all but impossible
to invade because the drawbridge over the Great Deep had been burned by the
four heroes during their escape more than two centuries agone; and to try to
win over that virtually bottomless chasm in the face of an enemy army seemed
an insuperable task. Yet, although the visitors had learned of the chief
difficulties they would initially face in the invasion, The Raven Book had not
given them what they sought: step-by-step knowledge of the heroes' trek
through Kraggen-corтАФ knowledge needed to wage a War upon familiar ground.
On learning of this need. Perry showed the visitors a scroll said to have been
recorded years after the Winter War by one of the four heroesтАФBrega the Dwarf.
The scroll detailed the path the heroes had taken on their perilous journey
through the undermountain Realm. Anval and Borin authenticated the scroll, for
they saw that it contained secret Dwarven marks; further, they vouched for its
accuracy, saying that the Dwarves have a special gift: once they have trodden
a path, it is within them always.
But Dwarves must actually tread a path in order to master it; they are no
better or worse than others at memorization. And the Brega Path was long and
complex; and for Anval or Borin to have to memorize it for the Dwarves to
invade Kraggen-cor would take monthsтАФtime the Dwarves could ill afford; for
the strength of the Spawn had continued to grow, and each night they extended
the range of their murderous raids.
Yet all was not lost, for with Cotton's help, Perry had been studying the
scroll, and he had committed the path to memory; and as a stripling, Perry had
always wanted to be caught up in an adventure, and at last an adventure had