"Dennis L. McKiernan - The Silver Call 2 - The Brega Path" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKiernan Dennis L)

'Secret Seven,' as motley a crowd as you'd ever ask to see." Perry at first
just smiled, but the more he gazed at his companions the funnier it seemed.
And suddenly he broke out in quiet laughter, and he could not seem to stop.
And the others stared at him amazed, and still he laughed. And then its
infectious quality caught Shannon, and he began chuckling too. Soon all had
joined in, looking at each other's besmudged features and finding them
comical.
"Well, my wee Waldan," growled Ursor with a grin, **I hope you don't get to
giggling down in the Wrg pits; we'll be dis-covered for certes, all of us
sitting around in a circle laughing our fool heads off." Again the company
broke into hushed laughter.
"I never thought I would set forth on a sneak mission with a group of court
jesters," growled Delk. "Yet, mayhap it is a new way of outwitting the foul
Grg: I doubt that japes and buffoonery have ever been used against thieving
Squam be-
fore. If we meet any, we will just fall on our prats, and while they'are
screaming in merriment, blinded with tears of joy, we will slip away and pop
open the Dusken Door and bring in the Army for an encore."
Lord Kian laughed quietly with the others, but he knew that their fey mood
concealed a tension within, for they were about to set forth on a dire
mission, and as is the wont of warriors everywhere in every age, rude jests
are bandied about before sallying into an ordeal. Aye, Kian laughed too, yet a
grim look crept o'er his features . . . and then: "Let us go now," he said,
squinting at the half-risen Sun, and all smiles vanished. "By the time we get
there the light will be shining full into the East Hall."
They started off down the slope and toward the gate. Perry's heart was racing,
for they were about to step out of the kettle and into the coals. He mentally
reviewed what he had told the others countless times during the overland
journey about what to expect in the way of halls and chambers, especially on
their initial penetration through Dawn-Gate. They had closely studied the map
and reviewed every applicable bit of knowledge and lore known to Perry, Anval,
Bonn, and Delk. And now the Warrow nearly had to bite his tongue to keep from
repeating it aloud as an outlet to relieve the enormous pressure growing
within him as they strode cross-slope toward the Gate.
And then they were mere.
Cautiously, bow fitted with arrow, Kian peered around one of the great
gateposts and down the sunlit hall: it was empty. At the young Lord's signal,
each of the comrades in turn stepped across the entryway and crept in past the
great doors, torn from their hinges ages agone and flung down ori the stone
floor, where they still lay. Standing in the shadows, the Seven could see
before them a huge room delved out of the stone, with a single outlet two
hundred yards away leading down a corridor. The direct rays of the Sun shone
through the Gate and struck the farthermost wall just to the right of that
distant portal yawning darkly at the remote end of the chamber, that corridor
which led down into the interior of Kraggen-cor. In rapid file, the Squad
hastened across the room—the
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DEMHI5 L. McKIERtlAH
Easi Hall—keeping to the south side and out of the direct sunlight so that
their own shadows were not cast down the far passageway to betray them.