"Karl Edward Wagner - Kane 06 - The Book Of Kane" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wagner Karl Edward)

screaming nightmare of white in which Kane had lost his way completely, and now frozen death joined
with those others who sought to bring down the ice-encrusted man who slumped forward in his saddle.

Many days behind him and to the southeast lay the independent principality of Rader, once thenorthmost
province of the old Serranthonian Empire, but now broken away in the collapse of the Empire which had
followed the extinction of the line of Halbros-Serrantho. Rader had become a frontier backwater after
the dynastic wars had destroyed the strength and wealth of the central states and had created a band of
desolation cutting Rader off from the civilization to the south. Law had been lost in the imperial
disintegration and never restored. In obedience to ancient principle, brute power shaped chaos into a
more orderly framework, and Rader had been ruled for the past century (when it was ruled at all) by a
variety of warlords. It had been a motley succession, for the land was of little value or importance. Thus
its rulers had usually been petty and relativelyunambitious menтАФold nobility, adventurers, robber barons,
and the like.

Until some few days before, Rader had been ruled by the hated exile OrtedAk-Ceddi, onetime bandit
leader turned Prophet of Sataki. Under his fanatical command, the dark cult of Sataki had exploded from
obscurity into a crimson wave of terror that had overwhelmed the forestlandofShapelifar to the south and
had very nearly broken forth to hurl its legions upon the southern kingdoms. But his power had at last
been smashed, and Orted had fled the ruins of his Dark Crusade with only a few of his most loyal
followers. Safe in the obscurity of this northern backwater, Orted had seized control of Rader with the
last remnant of his former strength and had settled down to ponder the tangled riddles of fortune and
power.

To Rader had come Kane in the night. As the mercenary general of the ProphetтАЩs cavalry, Kane had
both been creator of the fighting arm of the Dark Crusade as well as the cause of its ultimate failure.
Treachery on KaneтАЩs part had first sundered the Sword of Sataki, butOrtedтАЩs final insane double-cross
had brought on disaster for them both. Orted had escaped the ensuing slaughter of his followers, but
Kane was trapped by the victorious army ofJarvo . To avoid capture by his enemies he had entered that
unhallowed interdimensional corridor cursed by ancients as the Lair of Yslsl. The torments he
encountered withinYslslтАЩs cosmic web of soulless horror were such that it might have been better to have
accepted the mere physical torture and death from those he had thus escaped.

But Kane at length accomplished that which no other man could have done. He emerged at the one
other place on this world where the Lair of Yslsl impinged. It took him over a year to recover from the
ordeal he suffered therein, but when he did recover he set out to kill the man who had driven him within
the crawling passages of that elder world nightmare. The trail to Rader had taken him from one end of the
known world to the otherтАФa trail that twisted, forked, vanished, and reappeared again. But he followed
it with a singleness of purpose unfamiliar even to Kane.

And almost four years after the massacre of the Satakis at Ingoldi, OrtedAk-Ceddi found himself alone
in his chambers confronting Kane. The brief, vicious struggle ended most satisfactorily for Kane, who
was able to present Orted with a curious gem-like crystal derived from the venom of the now extinct
tomb worm of Carsultyal. Embedded in his flesh, the paralyzing venom seeped throughOrtedтАЩs writhing
form and silently commenced an ineluctable disintegration of every nerve in his body, working from the
tiniest to the largest cords. Kane was forced to cut short his enjoyment of the fantastic contortions of
OrtedтАЩs death throes, when the ProphetтАЩs guards finally broke into the chamber.

He had vaulted through the hidden passage by which he had gained entrance toOrtedтАЩs private
chambersтАФthe Prophet had not been able to learn all the secrets of his sanctuaryтАФand fled the city
before any organized search could be formed. Since that night Kane had been pushing steadily into the