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

last to the Argon.
In the early afternoon the Seven moved deeply into the Pitch, flanked on three
sides by mountains. Perry could see to the north end, where a glittering rill
cascaded in many falls down from the snows of Stormhelm. The stream and the
path it fell beside were named the Quadran Run; the pathway led up over
Quadran Pass to come down in the land called Rell. "How close are we to
Durek's Army and Cotton and your brother Rand?'' Perry asked Lord Kian,
peering at the snowbound pass.
"If my reckoning is right and nothing has delayed their course, the Army
should now be coming to the Dusk-Door. And we are two days of swift march from
here to that portal—if we could cross through yon blocked gap and then follow
the Old Way. But, Perry, could you fly like an eagle, you are but forty miles,
or so, over the mountain from there." Lord Kian looked down at the Waerling.
"Of course, we cannot soar like the hawk, but must instead go to ground tike
the badger, for the route we follow is under the mountain, with many twists
and turns—six and forty miles by your Brega Path."
On they marched until they came to the Quadmere, a clear, blue lakelet less
than a mile from the east portal, Dawn-Gate. They went down the sward to the
cold water to replenish their canteens. Anval, Bonn, and Delk looked upon the
still mere with a sense of wonder, for there began the realm of Kraggen-cor.
On the far side of the azure pool a stone embankment fell sheer into the
water; up on the level top of that shore stood a broken pillar, like a maimed
finger pointing at the sky: it was a Realmstone, marking this place as being a
Dwarvenholt. And runes upon the stone bade all who desired, to drink deep of
the pure cold water from the depths of ChSk-alon, the Dwarves' name for this
quiet tarn. Lord Kian's eyes swept the flanks of the mountain, and
THE BREGA PATH 9
men his look became fell. "There, I think. There lies the Dawn-Gate," he said
in a grim voice, and he pointed up the slope.
Perry's heart jumped to his mouth, for there, before him, high up on the west
wing of the Pitch, stood their destination: like a gaping black wound, the
east entrance intoJCraggen-cor yawned mute, a dark and forbidding portal into
a Spawn-filled maze. His heart thudded and his hands shook, and a thrill of
fear coursed through him, for with the coming of the early morning Sun on the
morrow, they would begin their desperate dash through this black hole to the
far Dusk-Door. And he would be their guide, for it was his task to lead them
without flaw on the tortuous way to that distant goal; and the full
responsibility of his role now began to crush down on him.
Perry tore his eyes away from the black hole and let his gaze follow the
broken stonework of an ancient wide roadway winding down from the entrance and
into the valley below, where it was lost among the heather and gorse on the
west side of the lake. But try as he might to not look, his vision was drawn
again and again to that jet-black slot, and each time he looked his heart
flopped over and he drew in his breath.
Ursor leaned down and said in a low voice that only Perry could hear, "Don't
worry, Wee One; once we start we'll be too busy to think about it." Perry gave
the large, understanding Man a flicker of a smite but said nought in return.
Lord Kian chose a thick grove of pine trees for the Squad to camp in that
night. The wood stood high on the slope a mile north of the Dawn-Gate. He
reasoned that Yrm forces would issue out of the gate and go east and south