"Raymond E. Feist - Faerie Tale" - читать интересную книгу автора (Feist Raymond E)

at an aggressive angle. He carried his Louisville Slugger
over his shoulder as a soldier carries his rifle. Sean hesi-
tated a moment, then set out after his brother, struggling
to keep his beat-up old Padres cap on his head. Twins
they might be, but Sean just didn't seem to have Patrick's
natural confidence, and his timidity seemed to rob him of
grace, causing him to slip often on the loose gravel and
rocks.

Sean stumbled and landed hard on his rear. He pulled
himself upright, all his anger at the tumble directed at his
brother. He dusted himself off and began to negotiate the
steep drop of the gully. He half scrambled, half slid down
the incline, his baseball glove and ball held tightly in his
left hand. Reaching the bottom, he could see no sign of

Patrick. The gully made a sharp bend, vanishing off to
the right. "Patrick?" Sean yelled.

"Over here," came the reply. Sean hurried along,
rounding the bend to halt next to his brother.

In one of those moments the boys shared, they com-
municated without words. Silently they voiced agree-
ment, This is a scary place.

Before them squatted an ancient grey stone bridge,
spanning the gully so a trail barely more than a path
could continue uninterrupted as it rambled through the
woods. The very stones seemed beaten and battered as if
they had resisted being placed in this arrangement and
had yielded only to brutish force. Each stone was covered
in some sort of black-green moss, evidence of the pres-
ence of some evil so pernicious it infected the very rocks
around it with foul ooze. Overgrown with brush on both
sides above the high-water line on the banks, the opening
under the bridge yawned at the boys like a deep, black
maw. Nothing could be seen in the darkness under the
span except the smaller circle of light on the other side. It
was as if illumination stopped on one side of the bridge
and began again only after having passed beyond its
boundaries.

The boys knew the darkness was a lair. Something
waited in the gloom under the bridge. Something evil.

Bad Luck tensed and began to growl, his hackles com-
ing up. Patrick reached down and grabbed his collar as
he was about to charge under the bridge. "No!" he
shouted as the dog pulled him along, and Bad Luck