"Anthony,.Mark.-.Last.Rune.02.-.The.Keep.Of.Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Mark)

Something stirred in the coruscating air ahead.

"Jakabar?"

The shape gathered its outlines behind the distant silver membrane that
spanned the road, then punched through and hurtled toward the man.

The beast approached with hateful speed, growing larger with each
fluttering of his heart, until it filled his vision and a roar

deafened him. Sunlight glared off armored crimson hide, and the thing 4
clung low to the ground, as if ready to pounce. Its eyes flashed twice,
and it let out a keening wail that pierced his skull and rooted him in
place. He abandoned motion, waiting to feel the beast's jaws close
around him, to feel bones pop and flesh part.

Acrid wind ripped at him, and stones pelted his skin. The hollow grasses
bent down, slaves before a terrible emperor, then rose as the world fell
still. The man craned his neck to look behind him, but the creature
already grew small and distant as it sped away.

He turned his gaze forward and forgot the beast. Again the fever rose
within him, cauterizing thought and memory, burning away everything he
was. He could envision the flames dancing along his papery skin. Soon.
After all this time, it would be soon now.

He started to move once more but met resistance from the ground. He
strained, then lifted a foot. Black strings of tar stretched from the
sole of his scuffed boot to the pit where it had sunk into the surface
of the road. He tugged his other boot free and lurched forward. He did
not know what strange land he had found himself in. All he knew was that
he had to find Jakabar.

"Beware," he whispered. "It will consume you."

The man staggered down the mountain highway, leaving a trail of

footsteps melted into the asphalt

2,

Now that he was back, it was almost as if he had never left.

"It's coming," Travis Wilder whispered as he stepped out the door of the
Mine Shaft Saloon.

He leaned over the boardwalk railing and turned his face westward, up
Elk Street, toward the pyramid of rock that stood sentinel above the
little mountain town.