"Sniegoski, Thomas E - Outcast - 04 - Wurm War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sniegoski Thomas E)

As if to make a liar of him, the air began to shimmer between them, and the face of Alethea Borgia, the Voice of Parliament, appeared in their midst. Her expression in that magical communique was severe.
"Lord Romulus!" the Voice snapped.
The gigantic Legion Grandmaster inclined his head respectfully. "At your service."
"Alhazred's Divide has fallen," the Voice stated, stumbling over the last word as though she could hardly believe what she was reporting. "The Wurm have come through and are now attacking our operations at Tora'nah."
Romulus glared at Carlyle. "You were saying?"
CHAPTER TWO
Wurm dropped from the sky, wings beating the air unmercifully, gouts of orange flame streaming from their mouths as they laid waste the mages' mining operations in Tora'nah.
Verlis tensed, struggling with the urge to throw himself into battle, but he had made a pledge to himself to do everything in his power to keep Walter Telford and his people safe. They were hiding inside a wooden storage shed used to house the various supplies needed to run the Forge. The scent of the black heatstone, volcanite, hung heavy in the air.
"What are we going to do?" one of the smiths asked. He was the youngest of the metal workers.
No one answered, and then Verlis realized that they were waiting for him to respond. "We can't stay here," he said with a growl, peering out through a crack in the door.
The raiders outside were in a frenzy, destroying everything in their path, and he could hear the screams of the dying, of mages who had been in the village or in an area of the mining operation too far from Telford's core crew and hadn't found anywhere to hide. Ordinary mages had basic magic at their disposal, but were not trained for fighting. The average Wurm also had rudimentary magical skills, but Wurm spent their entire lives preparing for war. There was no question how this day would end.
"It is only a matter of time before they find us," Verlis said with a growl. He turned to look at those who had followed him when the invasion began. In addition to Telford and Charna, there were perhaps fifteen blacksmiths and miners gathered in that cramped space. They had retrieved as many weapons and pieces of armor as they could carry, and it all rested in a heap on the floor behind them.
"Do you think we could make it to the sky carriages?" Charna asked, her eyes wide in terror. "Perhaps even save some of the others?"
Verlis shook his head, smoke furling from his nostrils. "Raptus's elite would burn us from the sky before we had a chance to clear the valley."
A stream of Wurm fire dropped dangerously close to the shack in which they hid, and they could feel the intense heat of the flames that now burned the very soil.
"What then?" Telford asked. "Those who were quickest into the fray have shown us the foolishness of trying to fight. If we had greater numbers, perhaps, but hearing their screams and watching them burn has shown us the truth. We are no match for Raptus and his army. Do we just wait here to die? I would rather rush out to meet my fate, to have a more noble death."
Verlis returned to the door and again gazed out on the devastation of the encampment. To remain here was certain death, but what if they did make their way from the valley? Would their chances be any better then?
"All right. You must listen to me," he said, returning his attention to the smiths and miners. "What I am about to propose may sound like madness, but I fear it is our only chance. Unless, friend Walter, you insist upon discarding your life needlessly?"
"Go on," Telford encouraged. "Any chance of living is better than dying at the mercy of those monsters."
The others nodded in agreement.
"Wearing what armor and weapons remain, we will fight our way out of the valley, to the one place Raptus's villains will not follow."
"You're insane," one of the smiths spat, a large man with a long, black beard on which he nervously tugged. "What chance do we have against those .. . those things?"
"More than if you wait for them to find you here," the Wurm explained, two trails of steam drifting from his nostrils, as the flame inside him began to churn with anticipation. "Our object is to survive long enough to reach our goal, not to be victorious."
"You have courage and honor, Verlis, but perhaps too much faith in us," Telford said. "And where could we go that they wouldn't follow? Eventually they would ..."
The project coordinator's voice trailed off, and his eyes lit with understanding. "You can't possibly be suggestingЧ"
Verlis stretched his wings as far as he could within the confines of the shed. "I am. The one place we might flee that the other Wurm will not follow. Alhazred's Divide has fallen. The way is open for us to cross into Draconae. All the Wurm serving Raptus are here now, and they would never return there for fear that they would become trapped again."
Charna swore under her breath. "You're correct, Verlis. It is madness."
"It is our only hope," the Wurm said. "We make our escape to Draconae. Once removed from the immediate threat of Raptus and his legions, we can begin to plot our return to Arcanum."
The sound of crackling fire and the thunder of beating wings drew closer, and Verlis knew they were only moments from discovery
"We need to act now," he urged.
The smiths and miners eyed one another nervously.
"It's a simple question, lads," Telford spoke to them. "Either you take a chance on living, or you resign yourselves to die. What will it be?"
The group remained silent, and then it was the burly, bearded man who showed Verlis the decision they had silently made. He went to the pile of armor and weapons, rummaging through the heavy metal objects until he found the helmet they had forged for Verlis.
"We had hoped to polish it up some before returning it to you," he said, handing it to the Wurm. "Perhaps we will still get the chance."
Verlis took it and placed it upon his head, horns sliding easily through the holes that had been made for them. "My thanks," he growled as they began to dress themselves in the armor, choosing weapons.
The building shook as the invaders soared overhead. They were closer nowЧdangerously so. There came a chorus of roars and the stink of sulfur as the roof of the building was set ablaze, fire rippling across the ceiling.
"Do not panic. Steel yourselves," Charna instructed them.
The smiths and miners stood ready, clad in armor and armed with weapons made from the Malleum they had extracted from the ground and forged to fight the Wurm. What they couldn't wear, they carried in makeshift packs on their backs. No Malleum was to be wasted. When they at last made their way back to Arcanum, it would be given to combat mages who would help repel the enemy.
Verlis flexed his powerful wings. "Are you ready?" His clawed hand rested on the door latch.
"Ready for combat? Not one of us, my friend. But we're not ready to die, either," Walter replied as he dropped the helmet visor down to shield his eyes. He turned to the others and raised his weapon in salute. They responded in kind.
Timothy stared at Carlyle, heart heavy with guilt. "I'm responsible ... aren't I?" He sat down heavily in a chair in the Grandmaster's office, burying his face in his hands.
"No one can say for certain," Carlyle answered. "But it does appear rather likely."
"I'm just what Parliament feared I was," he said. "A menace. A danger to the world."
"I'll hear none of that," Cassandra scolded, standing up from the large, high-backed chair behind the expanse of rich dark wood that had been Leander's desk. Her desk, now. "The fall of the Divide was just an unforeseen side effect of your defeat over Alhazred. You had no way of knowing it would happen."
Edgar ruffled his wings as he strolled across the top of the desk. "She's got you there, kid."
Timothy raised his head from his hands. "Unforeseen side effect?" he repeated in disbelief. "I'm responsible for allowing a Wurm invasion into the world." He stood and began to pace. "Don't you think you're downplaying the enormity of what I've done just a bit?"
"Now, Timothy," Sheridan said in a soothing voice. The mechanical man had been standing by Cassandra's desk, but now took several clanking steps forward, red eyes flaring brightly. "Getting upset won't do you, or anybody else, a bit of good. What's done is done."
Timothy approached the window, but not so close as to cancel out the enchantment of the shimmering spell-glass that filled its frame. "I'm a danger to this world." He stared out at the churning sea below the floating fortress. "It would have been better for everyone if I'd never left Patience."
Someone approached him, and from the delicate scent of flowers that wafted in the air, he knew it was Cassandra.
"Don't talk like that," she chided him. "If you had not left Patience for Terra . .."