"Paul S. Kemp - Erevis Cale 3 - Midnight's Mask" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kemp Paul S)

remember what happened between you, me, and Riven,
last time we were on the Plane of Shadow?”
Jak looked up, a furrow in his brow.
Magadon started to speak, stopped, finally nodded.
“Erevis, I thought I had dreamed it all, or conceived it in
a meditation. Sometimes my mind manifests wishes as
reali—” He stopped and smiled. “Never mind all that. I
do remember. It started to come back to me shortly after
I saw him atop the tower with the slaad.”
“What came back to you?” Jak asked.
Cale nodded, pleased to have his own hazy memory
confirmed. Magadon had set Riven’s betrayal—itself the
product of a latent psionic compulsion—as the trigger that
would allow the guide and Cale to remember the strata-
gem they had developed.
“So what next, then?” Magadon asked.
Jak took his pipe from his mouth and regarded them
with narrowed eyes.
“What are you two talking about?”
Magadon’s question sent Cale’s mind racing. He thought
first of Riven and of Varra. He made up his mind.
“A return to Skullport,” he announced. “Just me. For
only a moment or two.”
He wanted to determine if the city still stood. He
needed to see if Varra was all right.
“Skullport?” Jak asked. “Why would we return there?
Again, what in the Seven Heavens are you two—”

Midnight’s Mask • 9
 Magadon stared into Cale’s face and shook his head.
“We cannot go back to Skullport, Erevis. Not right now.
Riven is relying on us.”
“Riven!” Jak exclaimed.
“Because of what we did, the cavern could be collaps-
ing,” Cale said. “We’ve only been gone moments. I am
going back, Mags. I can get her out.”
Magadon did not ask who Cale meant by her. Instead,
he shook his head and said, “I understand what you
want to do, Erevis. But if it was going to collapse, then it
already has. She’s either alive or . . . not, and you won’t be
able to affect which it is. But wherever Riven is right now,
he will soon remember what happened, too. That makes
him vulnerable. The slaadi have displayed telepathy, and
we think they can read minds.”
Cale hesitated. Magadon must have seen it. The guide
added, “He trusted you when he agreed to do this. We’ve
got to back him up. We can return to Skullport afterward.
I’ll go with you. Jak will go with you.”
“I will?” Jak asked, confused. “Wait a—”
“But not right now,” Magadon said. “Right now, we do