"Dennis L. McKiernan - Hell's Crucible 2 - Into the Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKiernan Dennis L)

divert the Horde from the Dwarves.
With fighting to the front and rear, confusion reigned among the
Horde.
 From a burning wagon, Tip lit one of his signal arrows and launched
it into two of the liquid-drenched Trolls, setting them aflame, though Tip
himself was nearly slain by a Ghul in the process. The remaining Trolls
fled, afraid of the "magic fire." When the Trolls ran away, the Rucks
panicked and ran as well, and the siege was broken.
Many of the Allies were slain in this battle—Daelsmen, Baeron,
Dwarves, Dylvana—and many were wounded as well, including Phais,
terribly pierced by a poisoned arrow.
After the funerals, the Allies set off in pursuit of the remnants of the
Horde, but Tip, Loric, and Beau remained behind in Mineholt North
with wounded Phais.
Bekki, too, remained behind, for he had pledged himself to go with
Tip to deliver the coin.
Using a gift given him in Arden Vale, the mint gwyn-thyme, an
antidote to poison, Beau struggled desperately to save Phais's life and
barely managed to do so.
After two and a half months, Phais was fit enough to ride. And so,
on the fifteenth of December, Tip, Beau, Phais, and Loric set out once
more to deliver the coin, Bekki now among them. . . .
. . . And as Into the Fire begins, we join the five as they ride away
from Mineholt North.

Freedom is not free....




Into the Fire


Chapter 1

Down from the now-free gates of Mineholt North rode the
five—Tipperton, Beau, Phais, Loric, and Bekki—three on ponies, two
on horses, and drawing two pack animals behind. Down from the portal
and along the road on the eastern side of the mountain vale they
fared—two War-rows, two Elves, and a Dwarf—riding southward,
soon to turn east and follow the tradeway to the city of Dael. Of the
mighty battle which had raged before the gates a mere ten weeks past,
the battle which had shattered the Foul Folk siege of the Dwarvenholt,
the battle which had sent one of Modru's Hordes fleeing in panic, of that
battle there remained little sign, for all was covered with unmarked
December snow, and not even the great scorching of the funeral pyres
from the aftermath showed through, though rounded hummocks under
the whiteness betokened where lay the Daelsmen's burial knolls.
Past this field of blood rode the five, alongside a mountain flank,
slitted eyewear protecting their sight from the blinding glare of the white