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

all bright red rocks, and I guess the other one would be all black, though I can't say for sure, never
having seen-"
Caramon growled at this point, and Tas decided it might be best to hold his tongue. He did, too, for
about three minutes during which time Caramon continued to look around at their surroundings
with a solemn face. But it would have taken more holding than the kender had inside him (or a
sharp knife) to keep his tongue from talking longer than that.
"Caramon," he blurted out, "do-do you think we actually did it? Went to a-uh-moon, that is? I
mean, this certainly doesn't look like anyplace I've ever been before. Not that these rocks are silver
or red or even black. They're more of a rock color, but-"
"I wouldn't doubt it," Caramon said gloomily. "After all, you did take us to a seaport city that was
sitting squarely in the middle of a desert-"
"That wasn't my fault either!" Tas said indignantly. "Why even Tanis said-"
"Still"-Caramon's face creased in puzzlement "this place certainly looks strange, but it seems
familiar somehow."
"You're right," said Tas after a moment, staring around again at the bleak, ash-choked landscape.
"It does remind me of somewhere, now that you mention it. Only"-the kender shivered-"I don't
recall ever having been anyplace quite this awful ... except the Abyss," he added, but he said it
under his breath.
The boiling clouds surged nearer and nearer as the two spoke, casting a further pall over the barren
land. A hot wind sprang up, and a fine rain began to fall, mingling with the ash drifting through the
air. Tas was just about to comment on the slimy quality of the rain when suddenly, without
warning, the world blew up.
At least that was Tas's first impression. Brilliant, blinding light, a sizzling sound, a crack, a boom
that shook the ground, and Tasslehoff found himself sitting in the gray mud, staring stupidly at a
gigantic hole that had been blasted in the rock not a hundred feet away from him.
"Name of the gods!" Caramon gasped. Reaching down, he dragged Tas to his feet. "Are you all
right?"
"I-I think so," said Tas, somewhat shaken. As he watched, lightning streaked again from the cloud
to ground, sending rock and ash hurtling through the air. "My! That certainly was an interesting
experience. Though nothing I'd care to repeat right away," he added hastily, fearful that the sky,
which was growing darker and darker by the minute, might decide to treat him to that interesting
experience all over again.
"Wherever we are, we better get off this high ground," Caramon muttered. "At least there's a trail. It
must lead somewhere."
Glancing down the mud-choked trail into the equally mud-choked valley below, Tas had the
fleeting thought that Somewhere was likely to be every bit as gray and yucky as Here, but, after a
glimpse of Caramon's grim face, the kender quickly decided to keep his thoughts to himself.
As they slogged down the trail through the thick mud, the hot wind blew harder, driving specks of
blackened wood and cinders and ash into their flesh. Lightning danced among the trees, making
them burst into balls of bright green or blue flame. The ground shook with the concussive roar of
the thunder. And still, the storm clouds massed on the horizon. Caramon hurried their pace.
As they labored down the hillside they entered what must once have been, Tas imagined, a
beautiful valley. At one time, he guessed, the trees here must have been ablaze with autumn
oranges and golds, or misty green in the spring. Here and there, he saw spirals of smoke curling up,
only to be whipped away immediately by the storm wind. Undoubtedly from more lightning strikes,
he thought. But, in an odd sort of way, that reminded him of something, too. Like Caramon, he was
becoming increasingly convinced that he knew this place.
Wading through the mud, trying to ignore what the icky stuff was doing to his green shoes and
bright blue leggings, Tas decided to try an old kender trick To Use When Lost. Closing his eyes
and blotting everything from his mind, he ordered his brain to provide him with a picture of the