"Joel Rosenberg - Guardians Of The Flame 07 - The Road Home" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rosenberg Joel C)

As usual, I'm indebted to the Usual SuspectsтАФBruce Bethke, Pat Wrede, Peg Kerr IhingerтАФand even
more than usually to my agent, Eleanor Wood; and I'm always grateful to my wife, Felicia Herman, and
my daughters Judy and Rachel, for things that have both little and much to do with the work at hand.



PROLOGUE

The Road from Ehvenor

The truth is that the beginning of anything and its end are alike touching.

тАФYoshida Kenko



A hero's work is never done, which is one of the minor reasons I don't recommend the profession.

тАФWalter Slovotsky



Below, in the dark, in the city with the gleaming building at its heart, the flickering had stopped. But the
killing hadn't.

He was supposed to feel a sense of satisfaction, Jason Cullinane thought. But he didn't. Whatever good
he and the rest had done, they had also loosed more violence upon the world.

Shit.Like there wasn't enough already.

And thecost . . . worst of all, it had cost them Tennetty. But he would not cry over Tennetty.Never. She
was just his father's tame killer, that's all she had been, that's all she ever had been. She hadn't been his
friend, not at all. It was just that she had latched onto him as the closest available substitute for Karl
Cullinane.

But I'm not Karl Cullinane,he thought.I'm just Jason Cullinane, I'm just eighteen years old, and I
can't carry it all. He realized that he had been unconsciously tightening, then loosening the shoulder
muscles beneath his leather tunic.Mainly tightening. He felt like a lute string, wound too tight, ready to
break at the slightest pluck.

He would not allow himself to break. That would not be permitted.

He almost jumped out of his skin when the dwarf patted him on the shoulder.

"It'll be okay," Ahira said. His face, broader than any human's could possibly be, was split in a grin that
spoke more of relief than reassurance, although only his expression and the way sweat had slicked his
hair down betrayed the exhaustion that the dwarf must have felt.

But he looked strange. Jason still hadn't gotten used to looking down at Ahira. Ahira had shrunk over
the years in Jason's mind, if not in reality. Jason had known the dwarf for all of his life, and remembered