"Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - Rose of the Prophet 02 - The Paladin of the Night" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weis Margaret)

pugnacious face was split by a wide grin, "I took your homes several weeks
ago, during the Battle at the Tel. A battle your masters lost, by the way. If
that old goat, Majiid, is still alive, he now finds himself without a djinn!"
"Still alive? If you have murdered my master, I swear by Akhran thatтАФ"
"Sond! Don't! Don't be aтАФ" Pukah bit off his words with a sigh. Too late.
Swelling with rage, Sond soared to ten feet in height. His head smashed into
the cave ceiling, sending a shower of rock crashing to the floor below. With a
bitter snarl, the djinn hurled himself at Kaug. The 'efreet was unprepared for
the suddenness and fury of Sond's attack. The weight of the djinn's body
knocked the hulking Kaug off his feet; the two hit die ground with a thud that
sent seismic waves along the ocean floor.
Clutching at a rock to keep his balance on the heaving ground, Pukah turned to
offer what comfort he could to Asrial, only to find that the angel had
vanished.
A huge foot lashed out in Pukah's direction. Crawling up on the rock to be out
of the way of the combatants thrashing about around him, Pukah considered the
matter, discussing it with himself, whom he considered to be the most
intelligent of all parties currently in the room.
16
"Where has your angel gone, Pukah?"
"Back to Promenthas."
"No, she wouldn't do that."
"You are right, Pukah," said Pukah. "She is much too fond of you to leave
you."
"Do you really think so?" asked Pukah rapturously.
"I do indeed!" replied his other self, although his statement lacked a certain
ring of conviction.
Pukah almost took himself to task over this, then decided, due to the serious
nature of the current crisis, to overlook it.
"What this means is that Asrial is here and in considerable danger. 1 don't
know what Kaug would do if he discovered an angel of Promenthas searching
through his underwear."
Pukah glanced at the combatants irritably. The howling and gnarltng and
gnashing was making it quite difficult for him to carry on a normal
conversation. "Ah, ha!" he said suddenly, hopefully, "but perhaps he didn't
see her!"
"He heard her voice. He answered her question."
"That's true. Well, she's gone," said Pukah in matter-of-fact tones. "Perhaps
she's just turned invisible, as she used to do when I first caught a glimpse
of her in camp. Do you suppose she's powerful enough to hide herself from the
eyes of an 'efreet?"
There was no answer. Pukah tried another question. "Does her disappearance
make things better or worse for us, my friend?"
"I don't see," came the gloomy response, "how it matters."
Taking this view of the situation himself, Pukah crossed his legs, leaned his
elbow on his knee and sat, chin in hand, to wait for the inevitable.
It was not long in coming.
Sond's rage had carried him further in his battle with the efreet than anyone
could have expected. Once Kaug recovered from his surprise at the sudden
attack, however, it was easy for the strong 'efreet to gain the upper hand,