"Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth 9 - Chainfire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goodkind Terry)

This book is printed on acid-free paper. Edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Map by Terry Goodkind
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor.com
Tor* is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
ISBN 0-765-30523-2 (regular edition) EAN 978-0765-30523-7 (regular
edition)
ISBN 0-765-31307-3 (limited edition) EAN 978-0765-31307-2 (limited
edition)
First Edition: January 2005
Printed in the United States of America
0987654321
To Vincent Cascella, a man of inspirational intellect, wit, strength, and
courage and a friend who is always there for me
CHAINFIRE
HAPTER 1
C

TT
X Xow much of this blood is his?" a woman asked.
"Most of it, I'm afraid," a second woman said as they both rushed along
beside him.
As Richard fought to focus his mind on his need to remain conscious, the
breathless voices sounded to him as if they were coming from some great
dim distance. He wasn't sure who they were. He knew that he knew them, but
right then it just didn't seem to matter.
The crushing pain in the left side of his chest and his need for air had him
at the ragged edge of panic. It was all he could do to try to draw each crucial
breath.
Even so, he had a bigger worry.
Richard struggled to put voice to his burning concern, but he couldn't form
the words, couldn't get out any more than a gasping moan. He clutched the
arm of the woman beside him, desperate to get them to stop, to get them to
listen. She misunderstood and instead urged the men carrying him to hurry,
even though they were already panting with the effort of bearing him over
the rocky ground in the deep shade among the towering pines. They tried to
be as gentle as possible, but they never dared to slow.
Not far off, a rooster crowed into the still air, as if this were an ordinary
morning like any other.
Richard observed the storm of activity swirling around him with an odd
sense of detachment. Only the pain seemed real. He remembered hearing it
once said that when you died, no matter how many people were there with
you, you died all alone. That's how he felt now—alone.
As they broke from the timber into a thinly wooded, rough field of
clumped grass, Richard saw above the leafy limbs a leaden sky threatening to
unleash torrents of rain. Rain was the last thing he needed. If only it would
hold off.