"Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - Legends 03 - Test Of The Twins" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weis Margaret)

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It was after hearing these words that Caramon had understood at last that his brother was past
redemption. And so he had left him.
Let him go into the Abyss, Caramon had thought bitterly. Let him challenge the Dark Queen. Let
him become a god. It doesn't matter to me. I don't care what happens to him any longer. I am finally
free of him-as he is free of me.
Caramon and Tas had activated the magical device, reciting the rhyme Par-Salian had taught the
big man. He had heard the stones singing, just as he had heard them sing during the two other times
he had been present at the casting of the time-travel spell.
But then, something had happened. Something that was different. Now that he had time to think
and consider, he remembered wondering in sudden panic if something was wrong, but he couldn't
think what.
Not that I could have done anything about it anyway, he thought bitterly. I never understood magic-
never trusted it either, for that matter.
Another nearby lightning strike shattered his concentration and even caused Tas to jump in his
sleep. Muttering in irritation, the kender covered his eyes with his hands and slept on, looking like a
dormouse curled up in its burrow.
With a sigh, Caramon forced his thoughts away from storms and dormice back to those last few
moments when the magical spell had been activated.
I remember feeling pulled, he realized suddenly, pulled out of shape, as if some force were trying to
drag me one way while another was tugging at me from the opposite direction. What was Raistlin
doing then? Caramon struggled to recall. A dim image of his brother came to his mind. He saw
Raistlin, his face twisted in horror, staring at the Portal in shock. He saw Crysania, standing in the
Portal, but she was no longer praying to her god. Her body seemed wracked by pain, her eyes were
wide with terror.
Caramon shivered and licked his lips. The bitter-tasting water had left some kind of film behind
that made his mouth taste as if he'd been chewing on rusty nails. Spitting, he wiped his mouth with
his hand and leaned back wearily. Another blast made him flinch. And so did the answer.
His brother had failed.
The same thing had happened to Raistlin that had happened to Fistandantilus. He had lost control of
the magic. The magical field of the time-travel device had undoubtedly disrupted the spell he was
casting. That was the only probable explanation
Caramon frowned. No, surely Raistlin must have foreseen the possibility of that happening. If so,
he would have stopped them from using the device, killed them just as he had killed Tas's friend,
the gnome.
Shaking his head to clear it, Caramon started over, working through the problem much as he had
worked through the hated ciphering his mother'd taught him when he was a child. The magical field
had been disrupted, that much was obvious. It had thrown him and the kender too far forward in
time, sending them into their future.
Which means, I suppose, that all I have to do is activate the device and it will take us back to the
present, back to Tika, back to Solace....
Opening his eyes, he looked around. But would they face this same future when they returned?
Caramon shivered. He was soaked through from the torrential rain. The night was growing chill,
but it wasn't the cold that was tormenting him. He knew what it was to live knowing what was
going to happen in the future. He knew what it was to live without hope. How could he go back and
face Tika and his friends, knowing that this awaited them? He thought of the corpse beneath the
monument. How could he go back knowing what awaited him?
If that had been him. He remembered the last conversation between himself and his brother. Tas
had altered time-so Raistlin had said. Because kender, dwarves, and gnomes were races created by
accident, not design, they were not in the flow of time as were the human, elf, and ogre races. Thus