"Mithgar - Hel's Crucible - 02 - Into The Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKiernan Dennis L)

Phais shook her head and looked at the Warrows, then said, "Nay, Tipperton, 'tis heart."





They spent that night and all the next day in the cavernous shelter, the wind screaming past It was during Bekki's watch on the second night that the storm began to abate, and by the next morning there was nought of it left but a| few gentle flakes drifting down. The five scoured for dead-wood among the broad stand of trees ranging before the hollow to replace the wood they had used. And then they set out once again to the east, the ponies and horses at times broaching deep drifts, at other times faring across ground scoured clean by the blow.

Slowly the skies cleared, and by midafternoon the comrades rode beneath a glacial sky, the sun remote and chill the air numbingly cold, their breath streaming white, the vapor freezing on crusted scarves wrapped 'round faces and Bekki's beard was clotted with the ice of his exhalations.

Through the slits of his eyewear, Beau looked at Tip, the other buccan with his cloak wrapped 'round. "Lor', Tip but I don't think I'll ever be warm again. I mean, this is even worse than when we were in Drearwood."

"Let's walk awhile, Beau," said Tip, swinging a leg over the saddle forecantle and hopping down. "It'll warm us."

"I'm all for that," replied Beau, dismounting as well. "I mean, I'd walk all the way to Dendor if it'd keep me warm."

"There'll be a warm inn in Dael," said Tip, "with good hot food and something steaming to drink."

"Oh my, hot wine mulled with spices," groaned Beau. "I can taste it now."

Walking behind and leading two animals, Phais said, "A warm bath would serve better."

"Oh yes," agreed Beau. "A hot bath with hot wine to sip even as we soak."

Tip's mind flashed back to their first bath in Arden Vale, its warmth driving away the chill in their bones. And then he blushed, remembering dark-haired, blue-eyed Lady Elissan walking in on him as he stood naked in the bath washing his hair, his eyes closed against the soap running down, and he recalled her words at their last parting: When next thou doth take a bath, keep thine eyes open, else thou mayest once again have thy splendor revealed.

Tipperton laughed, his breath puffing white in the brumal air.

Beau looked at him. "What?"

Tip shook his head. "Oh, nothing."

And on they trudged, now and again coming across the bodies of Foul Folk who had died of wounds sustained in the battle before the gates of Mineholt North, wounds which ultimately proved fatal during the retreat as the Horde had fled. Yet they could not say how many other dead Rupt they had unknowingly passed hidden beneath the snow.





Early on the nineteenth of December the road they followed entered Daelwood, a wide forest in Riamon. Frost covered the stark limbs of the wintering trees, the boughs barren and hard.

"Oh my," said Beau, as they wended through the desolate wood, "but with the branches scraping at the sky, well, it reminds me somewhat of Drearwood."

"Nay, my friend," said Phais. "Dhruousdarda is an evil tangle; Arindarda is not."

Beau frowned. "Arindarda? ЧOh, you mean Daelwood."

"Aye."

Tipperton nodded. "I agree. There was an evil air to Drearwood, whereas here there is none." Then he turned to Phais. "I say: Arindarda: doesn't that mean, urn, Ringwood?"