"Tanya Huff - Death Rites" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

delay would have meant nothing in warmer water, but her lungs were already aching and she had a
thirty-eight-count to go.

The current weakened as the passage widened, and by a hundred she had the rope wrapped around one
hand while the other kept her head clear of protrusions on the tunnel roof.

At 117 she surged out into open water. At 119 she surfaced and sucked in a lungful of air that had so
much water in it, it was barely breathable. The noise told her she'd surfaced in the spray of a waterfall.
Then her feet touched sand, a questing hand touched rock and she pulled herself up onto a ledge.


file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Tanya%20%20Huff%20-%20Death%20Rites.html (10 of 18)23-12-2006 20:00:15
 Default


"Remind me to thank his Imperial Majesty for that experience," Bannon muttered in the darkness. "My
balls climbed up so high they're sitting on my shoulders."

'Teach them to ask for crackers, and I'd pay to see it." His voice told her he was standing, so she stood as
well.

They spent the next few moments warming up. Fingers stuffed into her armpits, she ran on the spot and
heard Bannon doing the same. Had they not just come out of the water, the air underground would have
been a cool relief after the scorching heat outside. As it was, it was almost warm and without a layer of
wet cloth against skin, exercise was enough to chase the cold. When her feet no longer felt like blocks of
wood and dexterity had returned, Vree reached out and lightly touched her brother's shoulder. "I vote we
risk a light," she said when he stilled.

The waxed linen had done its job. A moment later, they were studying the dimensions of the cave.

"Looks like we climb up beside the waterfall." Ban-non's sigh blew out the candle.

They didn't bother dressing, the climb would leave them almost as wet as the swim although
considerably warmer. Vree climbed with her eyes closed—it kept her from straining to see through
impenetrable darkness. At the top, they walked against the stream through another passage just high
enough to keep their heads and hands out of the water. When the passage opened up, a rising shelf of
sand led them to a beach and the silence told them they could safely light the candle again.

The beach led them to a cleft.

A climb.

Another passage.

Another pool.

Flood waters had carved only a single path. They couldn't have gotten lost. The three assassins who'd
taken this way before them had died in the fortress, so there had to be a way in.

"Your turn to go first, sister-mine."