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

his life ending in this horrible, farcical manner was too much to bear. He
thought of Alyssa, and wondered if she'd ever be able to find him here — alive
or dead. He heard once more her words about being careful where he chose to
follow, and wished he'd heeded her advice. Following the man whose skeleton
lay ahead had not been a wise move. He had let her down. He had let them all
down.
'No!'
He had been breathing in convulsive gasps, and was startled by the sudden roar
that burst from his lips. It had come from a surge of burning anger, a rage
against fate, and it fuelled a new and furious determination. He would not
surrender meekly. If he couldn't go back, then he would go on. And no flimsy
skeleton was going to stop him!
Squirming even closer, so that his face was pressed up against his pack,
Terrel used his crooked arm to hold this out of the way as best he could while
he reached forward with his other hand. Locating the bone, he felt along its
length to find the central point, where he hoped it would be at its thinnest,
then aligned the heel of his palm, drew his arm back and slammed it into the
obstacle as hard as he could. The impact jarred his shoulder and sent spikes
of agony through his neck and chest, but it had no effect on the bone. After a
few deep breaths Terrel tried again, with a similar lack of success, but he
was in no mood to give up now. He repeated his assault.
On the seventh blow, when his arm and shoulder were hurting so much he had
almost ceased to notice the
torment in the rest of his body, there was a loud, sharp crack and the bone
snapped in two. Breathing heavily, almost weeping from the effort it had cost
him, Terrel shoved his pack forward again and found, to his immense relief,
that it now moved easily. As he crawled on he passed other bones, but none of
them impeded his progress.
After a while the tunnel began to slope upwards and the light became stronger,
which gave him a little hope. The passage was soon almost vertical and was
joined from below by another, much smaller tunnel. This was smooth-sided, and
Terrel could hear the rumbling of the sea far beneath him. However, by then he
wasn't concerned with this curiosity. He had just glimpsed the sky through a
gap above him, and he hurried on up to the open air.
Although he had to be careful still, the stone teeth actually made it easier
for him to climb now, and he stuck his head out of the hole, finding - as he'd
expected - that he had emerged at the top of the sculpture. Looking down over
the smoothly curving sides of the whale, he saw to his dismay that fighting
was going on all around him now. The soldiers had abandoned any pretence of
strategy and had settled for a pitched battle on the relatively open ground of
the promontory. In just a few moments Terrel saw several men cut down, and
there seemed to be no end in sight. Both sides appeared intent on fighting to
the last man. He had no wish to become embroiled in such violence, and decided
to stay where he was until the slaughter ended or moved elsewhere. Preoccupied
as they were, it was not likely that the warriors would notice his head poking
from the top of the sculpture.
The wind had risen considerably since he'd been inside the whale and was now
blowing at almost gale force. Out to sea, a huge swell was building up, and
although Terrel
couldn't see them, he could hear some of the waves crashing into the base of