"Douglas Niles - Forgotten Realms - Viperhand" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niles Douglas)

covered with dust.
A sense of despair dropped over them like a black cloth. What could they hope
for, besides a slow, parched death? Earlier, Poshtli's goalтАФto reach the
desert dwarves that he knew dwelled somewhere in this rocky wastelandтАФhad
seemed like a hopeful alternative to death by magic or sacrifice. But now that
hope faded, for they had seen no sign of any living creature for many days.
Suddenly Erix turned toward them, her face brightening with faint vitality.
"Listen!" she croaked through her parched lips.
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DOUGLAS NILES
"What?" asked Poshtli, tensing.
"I dont hear anything" Hal said numbly.
"You must'" she snapped. "There! There it is again!"
"A cry ... it sounds human," Poshtli whispered, his black eyes darting around
the horizon. Halloran had still heard nothing.
"This way!" Erix declared, her voice full of sudden hope. She hastened down
the sandy ridge, the men stumbling hurriedly behind her. Hal felt beyond hope,
past depair, only noting dimly that they moved again. Erixitl's trail swung to
the right, and they came around a rough shoulder of rock. "There!"
The woman pointed to a green splash of color against the brown rocks. At
first, Hal thought she had found some succulent plant, but then the greenery
took to the air with a beat of powerful wings, trailing its bright-plumed tail
behind it.
"A macaw," breathed Poshtli. "A bird of the jungle! But here, in the desert?"
"He must have water nearby," Erix replied.
The bird flew upward and circled them for a moment. Then it dove away, coming
to light on another ridge that lay beyond the low rise they had just
traversed. Eagerly, with a desperate sense of hope, they started toward the
bird.
It sat still, regarding them with bright, unblinking eyes as they shuffled
forward as quickly as total exhaustion allowed. It squawked once, chopping its
hooked beak. The macaw's large yellow claws shifted awkwardly on its stony
perch, but still it stared at them.
Erix led the way. Suddenly she was no longer stumbling. Scrambling up the
shallow slope, she almost reached the bird before, with a sudden flip of its
wings, it again took to the air.
The macaw darted up and over the top of the slope, diving out of sight down
the far side. Halloran shook off an irrational fear that Erix would fly away
with the bird, disappearing from his life.
"Hurry!" Erix called excitedly, nearly sprinting to the top.
The others joined her at the rocky crest, gasping for breath. Even Storm
lumbered along, almost trotting,-until
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VlPEHHAND
they all stopped and stared in amazement.
Before them lay a shallow valley, rocky, not as sand-covered as the
surrounding desert. Steep shelves of crumbling stone plummeted to the floor of
the depression, which resembled a great yellow bowl, perhaps half a mile
across. It was so deep that they could not have seen inside it unless they
were standing upon its rim as they now did.