"Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - Deathgate Cycle 7 - The Seventh Gate" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weis Margaret)

"Don't fall asleep!" Marit warned.

Touching his tender tongue to his teeth, he groaned, grunted. "Back on Arianus, I used to dream
that when I was a wealthy man, I'd wallow in water. Have a big barrel of it outside my house and
I'd jump in it, splash it over my head. Now"тАФhe grimacedтАФ"may the ancestors take me if I so
much as drink a sip of the cursed stuff!"

Marit stood up. "We can't stay here, out in the open like this. If you're feeling up to it, we have to
move."

Hugh was on his feet immediately. "Why? What is it?"

He looked at the runes on her hands and arms; he'd been around Haplo long enough to know the
signs. Seeing the sigla dark, he glanced up at her questioningly.

"I don't know," she answered, staring hard into the forest. "There's nothing close, seemingly. But . .
." Unable to explain her uneasiness, she shook her head.

"Which way?" Hugh asked.

Marit considered. Vasu had pointed out the site where the green and golden dragonтАФAlfredтАФhad
last been seen. That was to the gateward side of the city, the side facing the next gate. [1] She and
Vasu had judged the distance to be within half a day's walk.

Marit gnawed her lip. She could enter the woods,

1 Directions in the Labyrinth are based on the "gates," those markers which indicate how far one
has progressed through the Labyrinth. The first gate is the Vortex. The city of Abri is between the
first and second gates. Since the Labyrinth's innumerable gates are scattered around randomly,
directions are based on where one is at the time in relation to the next gate.
which would give them shelter but would also make them more vulnerable to their enemies, whoтАФ
if they were out thereтАФwere undoubtedly using the woods to conceal their own movements. Or she
could keep to the riverbank, keep in view of the city. For a short distance, any foe who attacked her
would be in range of the magical weapons held by the guards on the city walls.

Marit decided to stay near the river, at least until the city could offer no more protection. Perhaps
by then she would have picked up a trail that would lead her to Alfred.

What that trail might be, she didn't like to think.

She and Hugh moved cautiously along the river's shoreline. The black water churned and fumed in
its banks, brooding over the indignities it had suffered. The two took care to keep clear of the
slippery bank on one side and avoid the forest shadows on the other.

The woods were silent, strangely silent. It was as if every living being had gone away . . .

Marit halted, sick with realization, understanding.

"That's why no one's around," she said aloud.