"Vance Moore - Magic the Gathering - Odyssey Cycle 01 - Odyssey" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moore Vance)

vision, and he looked through the increasingly dim
light to the town's gate. The road began to rise, and he
breathed harder as he neared the city limits. The
crater walls were notched, and the entrance reminded
the barbarian of a pass through mountains, though far
smaller in scale than the peaks of his childhood home.
Drovers hurried a string of camels into the city, their
whips snapping as they moved the animals through
the high gate. Merchants from across the continent
come to satisfy the tourney crowds, the warrior
thought.
Kamahl breathed deeply, the prospect of the
games exciting his blood more than the run. Years
mastering the fighting arts lay behind him, and now
he rushed to show his skills before the wider world.
Veteran of many a duel in his home mountains, he
wanted more than the championship of an alpine
valley. The best fighters on the continent converged on
this tourney, and he belonged here.
His stride lengthened as he left the hills, his
boots pounding into the road's surface. The guards
waved the merchants through, uttering only a few
threats to increase the bribes offered. They turned
their attention on the jogging figure. His light
throwing axes softly rubbed against Kamahl's wallet.
He had run for days approaching the contest and lost
what little fat he might have had. The strict regime of
exercise had refined him down to his essence. He
pulled up to the gate without any sign of exertion
except his deep breaths.
"Another jack," muttered a guard as he took a
firmer hold of his halberd and moved out from the
gate, Kamahl frowned, for the soldier used the term

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for an arena fighter as if it were an insult. He was a
champion, and only the obvious inferiority of the
speaker prevented a demand for satisfaction. The man
looked nervously at a stack of orders. The rest of the
troops had withdrawn inside to the guardhouse. Two
stout men-at-arms slowly lugged a crossbeam to brace
the gate when it closed for the night. The road lead
directly into town with only a portcullis to bar the way.
The wall was only twelve feet high and the guards
served more to collect tolls than defend the city.
"Why have you come to the pits of the Cabal?"
intoned a guard who drew away from the gate as if to