"Chris Roberson - Companion to Owls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberson Chris)

brave the mother-bird's beak and claws--North's face and arms were covered with scratches and
beak-marks before they were through. They lashed its vicious beak closed, and then tethered its feet to a
long length of rappelling cable. Then they ascended the innards of the steeple for the distance of a half a
league, making their slow and steady way up through the scaffolding and spiraling stairwells that made up
the skeleton of the spire. They emerged in the thin air--they could still breathe, but were high enough that
their lungs worked double to keep their blood fueled with oxygen--where the wind was so cold that their
fingers cramped into gnarled claws at their sides, even within their heavy down-lined leather gloves. They
then descended the Steeple until they reached the bartizan beneath which the lindworm slumbered.

The necromancer loosened the bindings around the yllerion's beak, and then dangled the bird over the
promontory of the bartizan. The yllerion, making up in its tempestuous calls and squawks the time lost in
silence, drew the attention of the lindworm, which slowly began to uncoil from its shaded sanctuary, its
diamond-shaped head gradually snaking out into the bright sunlight, angling towards the bird. The
yllerion's black eyes seemed to reflect the death it saw coming for it, and it redoubled its squawking and
flapping. The lindworm lunged forward, catching the bird in its powerful jaws, and just as its diamond
head had cleared the overhanging bartizan, North stabbed downwards with a metal stave as tall as
himself, piercing the lindworm's body just behind the head, impaling it. The lindworm thrashed like a fish
on a hook, but North kept his hold on the stave, his teeth gritted. Just when North felt he could hold out
no longer, the lindworm thrashed once with a final shudder, and then went still.

The necromancer and Steeplejack North descended carefully to the level where they had lowered the
body of the lindworm. The necromancer, red-faced and sputtering, accused North of killing the
lindworm, of ruining the dragon-stone within its mind and losing them a fortune in the balance. North
cautioned the necromancer to bide awhile, and laid a gloved hand on the thick, scaly hide of the great
serpent. It still rose and fell, slowly. There was life within, but it was faint. The beast was paralyzed and
stunned, bleeding out its life blood, but it was not dead. Not yet.

The necromancer was no help--again--in the next stage. North used a heavy spanner to crack the thick
skull of the beast, then applied clippers and a pruning hook to cut away the epidermis and the thick, grey
matter of the lindworm's still-living brain. North didn't know what thoughts might still be coursing through
the serpent's mind that his knife was interrupting. He preferred not to know. Finally, the innards of the
lindworm's skull steaming in the chill air, he plunged his hands within, and pulled out a white, translucent
gem the size of a child's fist.

North looked up, the Draconce in his hands, and found the necromancer aiming a silver-filigreed pistolet
at him. The necromancer, teeth bared and eyes widened, stared down the barrel of the firearm at the
Roofman, crazed with greed.

The necromancer told North to hand over the Draconce, or he would shoot. North refused, and said that
the necromancer would shoot him anyway, as soon as he handed over the dragon-stone. The only reason
North was still standing was that if the necromancer shot now, North might tumble over the side of the
Steeple and fall thousands of feet below, and the Draconce would be lost.

The necromancer would not discuss matters further. He thumbed back the hammer on the pistolet, and
told North that he was willing to take the chance, if need be. If North did not hand over the Draconce
immediately, the necromancer would fire, and they would both be forced to deal with the consequences.

North tensed, unwilling to hand over his own leverage, unsure whether the necromancer was as
desperate as he seemed. His thoughts raced, trying to find a way out of his predicament.