"Hand of the Hunter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sehestedt Mark)

"I-"

"Truth now. Has fear so clouded your mind that you forget? Let me help you. What is the one thing you desire most? If you could have only one thing right now, what would that be?"

"Vengeance," she said it without thinking.

"Truth at last. But know this: The Master is not one to bargain. You do not make demands of the Master of the Hunt. Obey him, or do not. There is no middle ground."

"My family-"

"Vengeance will not bring them back. It will not ease your pain."

"Jagun Ghen killed my family!"

"Ah," said Kesh Naan. "Now we come to it. Jagun Ghen killed your family. Do you know why?"

Hweilan could not look away. The woman's eyes… depthless. But they held her. Hweilan opened her mouth, but before she could speak"The truth now," said Kesh Naan. "Only the truth."

And so she spoke the truth: "I don't know."

"You will," said Kesh Naan. She clapped her hands. Just once, but it filled the air like the crack of a whip.

And the spiders came. Thousands of them. Millions. Dropping from the ceiling and running across the floor, covering Hweilan's skin, crawling into her ears and nose. She rolled and thrashed, crushing hundreds, desperate to shake them off. But for every dozen she managed to smash or shake loose, a hundred more took their place. Their tiny legs did no more than tickle, but their fangsThey bit, again and again and again. One of them surely would have done no harm, been no more than an irritation. But thousands biting her at onceHweilan screamed.

Spiders swarmed into her mouth, biting and biting and biting…

Lights exploded in Hweilan's mind. Each tiny bite bringing a spark, every flicker its own unique color, every one trying to swallow all her other senses.

She let them.