"Dragonlance - Deathgate 6 - Into The Labyrinth - uc" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragonlance)

22

WEIS AND HICKMAN

know what nerve he had hit, but he reveled in the discovery and kept probing.

"Our children rarely know their own parents. A kindness—one of the few we can do for them. That way they don't become attached to their parents. It doesn't hurt so much when they find them dead. Or watch them die."

Xar's hatred and fury were slowly suffocating him. There wasn't enough air in Abarrach to sustain him. Blood beat in his head, and the lord feared for an instant that his heart might rupture. He raised his head and howled, a savage scream of anguish and rage that was like the heart's blood bursting from his mouth.

The howl was horrifying to hear. It reverberated through the catacombs, growing louder by some trick of the acoustics, and stronger, as if the dead in Abarrach had picked it up and were adding their own fearful cries to those of the Lord of the Nexus.

Marit blanched and gasped and shrank in terror against the chill wall of the prison. Sang-drax himself appeared taken aback. The red eye shifted uneasily, darting swift glances into the shadows, as if seeking some foe.

Samah shuddered. The scream might have been a spear driven through his body. He closed his eyes.

"I wish I didn't need you!" Xar gasped. Foam frothed his mouth; spittle hung from his lips. "I wish I didn't need the information you have locked in that black heart. I would take you to the Labyrinth. I would let you hold the dying children, as I have held them. I would let you whisper to them, as I have whispered: 'All will be well. Soon the fear will end.' And I would let you feel the envy, Samah! The envy when you gaze down upon that cold, peaceful face and know that, for this little child, the fear is over. While for you, it has just begun . . ."

Xar was calm now. His fury was spent. He felt a great weariness, as if he had spent hours fighting a powerful foe. The lord actually staggered as he took a step, was forced to lean against the stone wall of the prison cell.

"But unfortunately, I do need you, Samah. I need you to answer a ... question." Xar wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his robe, wiped the chill sweat from his face. He smiled, a mirthless, bloodless smile, "I hope, I sincerely hope, Samah, Head of the Council of Seven, that you choose not to answer!"

INTO THE LABYRINTH

23

Samah lifted his head. The eyes were sunken, the skin livid. He looked truly as if he were impaled on his enemy's spear. "I do not blame you for your hatred. We never meant . . ." He was forced to pause, lick dry lips. "We never meant any of the suffering. We never meant for the prison to turn deadly. It was to be a test . . . Don't you understand?"

Samah gazed at Xar in earnest appeal. "A test. That was all. A difficult test. One meant to teach you humility, patience. One meant to diminish your aggression . . ."

"Weaken us," Xar said softly.

"Yes," said Samah, slowly lowering his head. "Weaken you."

"You feared us."

"We feared you."

"You hoped we would die . . ."

"No." Samah shook his head.

"The Labyrinth became the embodiment of that hope. A secret hope. A hope you dared not admit, even to yourselves. But it was whispered into the words of magic that created the Labyrinth. And it was that secret, terrible hope that gave the Labyrinth its evil power."

Samah did not answer. He sat again with his head bowed. (

Xar shoved himself away from the wall. Coming to stand in front of Samah, the lord put his hand beneath the Sartan's jaw, wrenched his head up and back, forced Samah to look up.

Samah flinched. He wrapped his hands around the old man's wrists, tried to free himself from the lord's grasp. But Xar was powerful. His magic was intact. The blue runes flared. Samah gasped in agony, snatched his hands away as if he had touched burning cinders.