"Michael A. Stackpole - Dragon Crown Saga 3 - When Dragons Rage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stackpole Michael A)

your friends. Forget this, and the world will suffer .
The sting came swift and brutal, stabbing deep into his belly. The paralysis released him.
His body snapped forward and he rolled onto his left side, clutching the DragonCrown
fragment to his belly. The flesh quivered and he tried to pull himself more tightly into a ball,
but his girth prevented it. The agony in his middle cast lightning into the rest of him, but after
a moment it evaporated, leaving him sweaty and cold.
As cold as the stone in his hands.
Kerrigan cast the blanket off and gulped down cooler air. He rolled onto his back and lay
there gasping. He stared up at the shifting shadows and streaks of light cast up through the
ill-fitting floorboards. Sweat stung his eyes, and he swiped at it with his hand before
returning the fragment to the leather bag and tucking it back inside his shirt.
He had no idea what had just happened to him тАФ no concrete idea, though he did have
fragments. A mind had touched his. He knew it wasnтАЩt Chytrine, since she would have
scourged him. This mind bore him no malice. The pain heтАЩd known at the end had come
because this mindтАЩs use of the word тАЬsufferтАЭ carried with it far more import than the human
word.
The word resurfaced in his mind and he saw it in fine script, as if a mask behind which
something hid. The way the Oriosan King hides his cowardice behind a mask . In this case,
however, the word covered something more terrible. It concealed a horror so overwhelming
that were it to be unmasked it would shatter his mind.
Logic suggested that he had been speaking with a dragon. After all, the DragonCrown
had been fashioned to make them subject to the owner. The one gem that Chytrine
possessed gave her control over at least one dragon. Had he touched the mind of an
enslaved dragon?
Kerrigan shifted his shoulders and sat upright. That doesnтАЩt matter . Whether it was an
enslaved dragon or some trick Chytrine had played upon him was immaterial. The suffering
that mind knew would become a daily occurrence if Chytrine won.
The young magicker shook his head. With the help of his friends, he was determined this
would never happen.




CHAPTER 4


With his arms flailing unsuccessfully to control his flight, the Tolsin guardsman landed
hard on the round wooden table, shattering it completely. The short drop to the ground
forced a grunt from him and caused his tin-pot helmet to bounce off. It clunked and danced
across the floor, striking Call Mably full in the knee, which was, for Alexia, a consequence
unintended but hardly unwelcomed.
 Mably тАФ a scrawny man with brown eyes and thin lines of hair covering his pate тАФ
hissed and clutched at his knee. He glanced up at her with a hot glare. He wore a leather
mask of Oriosan green that had been festooned with a variety of marks and little badges to
stress his authority as TolsinтАЩs magistrate, and its gaudy display only served to undermine
the glareтАЩs heat. He straightened up at his table in the Thistledown Tavern, and did his best
to keep his voice even.
тАЬTo what do I owe this honor, Princess Alexia?тАЭ
Alexia took one step forward, pinning the guardsmanтАЩs right hand to the floorboards. тАЬI
came to visit Crow, but this man was under the mistaken impression that no such visit would