"Julia Gray - Guardian 04 - The Red Glacier" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gray Julia)

appeared to end in a blank, horizontal roof, which would be quite impossible
to pass. Even so, Terrel was not willing to give up yet, and went on. A few
moments later he was intensely relieved to find that the crevasse did not end,
but veered sideways in a sort of open-sided tunnel that was big enough for him
to be able to crawl along it quite easily. What was more, to his great joy he
could see level ground, with a covering of threadbare grass, at the end of the
traverse. By the time he reached that, he knew he'd achieved the first of his
goals. He was at the top.
As he stood there, taking in deep lungfuls of the cold, clear air, Terrel
wondered for the first time what he was supposed to do now. The Tindaya Code
had led him to this spot, but it had given no indication as to what was
supposed to happen next.
Looking round, he saw that Savik's Whale was only a few hundred paces away
and, without thinking, he set off towards the great sculpture. However, before
he'd gone very far, movement from a little further inland caught his eye, just
as the faint sounds of clashing steel and raised voices drifted to him on the
wind.
Terrel stared in horror, knowing that he'd overcome one danger only to find
himself embroiled in another. What he had stumbled into was not a forbidden
zone but a war zone.
Chapter Six
The terrain over which the battle was being fought was uneven, but Terrel was
on relatively flat ground, with no vegetation to speak of, so there was
nowhere for him to hide. His first instinct was to throw himself flat, in the
hope that he could avoid being seen by the combatants, but as soon as he'd
done this he realized that the battle was moving in his direction. He still
felt horribly exposed, and knew that he'd have to find a better hiding place
if he was to have any hope of remaining undetected. Going inland was out of
the question — that would simply take him closer to the fighting - and behind
him was the cliff edge. His only alternative was to go along the coastline one
way or the other. In either case that would mean crossing a stretch of bare
earth and rock, covered only by sparse patches of grass and a few pockets of
snow. To the east the land rose slowly, but there was nothing large enough to
conceal him there. The only possibility of cover to the west was Savik's
Whale, but going in that direction would take him further out on to the
tapering headland, making it more likely that he'd be trapped there as the
battle went on. However, this was clearly his only chance, and so he took it.
Heedful of Alyssa's warning, he wanted nothing to do with the islanders' war,
so he scuttled along the cliff top, keeping as low as he could and hoping he
would not be seen. The awkward movement sent needles
of pain shooting through his twisted leg, but he limped on.
With every step he expected to hear the shout that meant he'd been spotted,
but it did not come. In fact, the noise of battle seemed to have receded a
little, masked now by a rising wind that was blowing from the other side of
the headland.
When Terrel finally reached the whale, and staggered under its massive
upraised tail fins, he crouched down in the shadows where the belly of the
creature joined the granite below. As he caught his breath, he saw that the
sea was now flecked with white and a rolling swell was building up. He heard —
and felt — waves crashing into the base of the cliffs on the windward side of