"McKiernan, Dennis L - Silver Call 02 - The Brega Path UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKiernan Dennis L)

They marched down to the west for nearly three more hours, coming at last to the chamber foretold of by Perry. "Brega called this the Broad Hall," stated the Warrow, "but I say iit is a dining hall, for I am hungry—and weary. Lord Kian, I suggest we eat and rest. It has been a long day, though I don't know exactly how far we've come nor what time it is."
"We have walked nearly sixteen miles in the caverns," declared Delk, "fourteen on the Brega Path and two to bypass the fallen stone at the Hall of the Gravenarch." Anval and Bonn nodded their agreement, for the distances and directions were emblazoned in their Dwarf memories.
"Though I am not certain," rumbled Ursor, "I think the day outside has fled, and the Moon rides the eventide. It is my guess that it is now near the mid of night."
"It is two hours beyond midnight, and the Moon sinks low in the west," corrected Shannon with a certainty the others did not doubt, for though days, weeks, months, and even years seem to mean little to Elves, and they appear to note only the seasons, still they know at any moment where stand the Sun, Moon, and stars.
"Well, no wonder I'm hungry and tired," sighed Perry.
"So are we all," agreed Lord Kian. "Perry is right. Here we will eat, drink, and rest. We stand the same order of watch as before. Bane shall be our silent sentinel."
Perry hungrily consumed three crue bicuits and drank a s/nall amount of water; on their next long march they should reach the "safe" stream that flowed through the Bottom Chamber, seventeen miles to the west, but til they did, water was to be conserved. The Warrow then plumped his pack into a pillow and, settling back, fell instantly into slumber. Bane, leaning against a block of stone, softly glinted, whispering of far-off enemies.
Four hours later, Ursor awakened Perry for his turn at guard. Again, to stay awake, the Warrow slowly paced back and forth in the dim light cast by the barely cracked Dwarf-lantern. He watched Bane, but it changed not. Finally, his tour over, he went to rouse Shannon Silverleaf.
The Elf sat quietly with his back against a wall, and his tilted eyes glittered in the lantern light, for the sleep of Elves is strange and wholly different from that of Dwarf, Man, or Warrow—if indeed Elves sleep a genuine sleep at all. It is said that in their Lands twilight rules, and the days pass not, and slumber never visits. Legend would have it that some mortals have become ensnared in this timeless existence. Yet these legends of Lands where time's hands stand still, these legends would seem to fly in the face of the Elves* "knowing" where stand the Sun, Moon, and stars. On the other hand, many would say that Elves' "power" over time proves that they live in twilight and sleep not. Still, it is recorded in The Raven Book that Lord Gildor said that though Elves could go
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for many days without true slumber, even they must sleep at last.
But when Perry approached the resting Elf, Silverleaf stood ere the Warrow came nigh and indicated to the buccan that he should sleep.
In all, the company had rested for some eight hours when Delk finally roused the others. They ate a quick meal and sipped water, and then they struck out once more. Perry continued to carry Bane unsheathed, and still the faint blue flame spoke only of distant danger.
The farther west they went the less finished the passageway became. Now they occasionally came upon splits and fissures in the floor; most could be stepped over, but at times Perry had to spring across, though none of the others did, being taller than the wee buccan. At one point they passed a broad tunnel merging from the right. Its worn floor bespoke heavy travel throughout the ages, yet whether it was smoothed by Rucken feet or by the Dwarves before, they could not telU The timeworn track continued on in the passage the Seven followed, and once again their speed was considerable.
They had gone this way for a time when Perry noted that Bane's jewel was beginning to glitter more strongly; but whether the danger was before them, or overtaking from behind, or coming from the side, they knew not. "Ahead lies the Round Chamber," announced Perry. "It has many entrances and exits to hide us. It is not far. Let us make for it."
Swiftly they strode forward at a pace set by the Warrow^. Bane's flame continued to grow. Finally they came to the gallery Perry had spoken of: it was another huge room, as most of the chambers in Kraggen-cor seemed to be; this one was circular, and there were many portals along its perimeter, some delved, some natural clefts. The chamber was empty, but Bane's blade-jewel now glittered brightly. "We know not which way the danger comes," said Kian, "but chances are it will issue from one of the delved ways and leave by another. Let us choose one of these unworked cracks to slip into to remain undetected. Perry, be prepared to sheath Bane's blue light."
The Seven found a natural fissure with undisturbed dust carpeting its level floor; they slipped into the cleft and waited
with lanterns tightly hooded. Bane's glow grew to a cobalt flame that ran along the bitter edge, and Perry sheathed the blade. The Squad could see torchlight bobbing up the south passage they had just come from: the danger had been overtaking them from behind. A large company of Rucks jog-trotted out of the tunnel and into the great, round room. They loped to the center of the huge chamber. A command was snarled by the Hlok leader, and the company halted. Another contmand, and the Rucks broke from their ragged ranks and flopped to the stone floor. They were staying.
Lord Kian drew back from the cleft entrance and turned to the companions he could now dimly see by reflected torchlight. Before Kian could speak softly, Bonn stepped out of the darkness at the back of the split and motioned Kian to him. "This crack is a dead end," the Dwarf whispered. "We cannot get out."
They watched the Rucks for six taut yet somehow dreary-hours. During that time the maggot-folk had quarreled, cursed, and snarled; several fights had broken out among them, only to be stopped by the raging Hlok lashing the squabbling Rucks and anyone nearby with a great, cracking whip. The maggot-folk had gluttonously eaten a grisly meal of some unknown flesh: hunkered down, slobbering and drooling, and throwing splintered bones into the darkness beyond the torchlight after cracking them open and tonguing out the marrow. At last, however, the Spawn had finished their gruesome repast and then had resumed quarreling and cursing, casting lots, shoving one another, bickering.
"This is awful," whispered Perry to Lord Kian. "We have got to get out of here. We've lost too many hours as it is, and we must be on our way. Can't we slip through the shadows and out the far north door?"
Lord Kian, sitting on the floor with his back to the wall, grimly shook his head. "Look closely," he breathed, "they are athwart al! our paths, both to the west and around the chamber to the east and north. We have no choice buj to wait them out."
Another hour went by; then mere was a great hubbub in the chamber as a second Hlok-Ied, torch-bearing company of Rucks loped through one of the west portals and into the vast
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room, halting aflank the first band. "Where've you been, Plooshgnak, you slime?" snarled the first H!6k, cracking his whip. "We've been stuck here waiting for your snot-wart hides too long. I ought to run some maggot holes into your stinking guts with a hot iron."
"Aw, shut your snag trap, Boshlub," snarled the Hlok leader of the second band. "We're not the last: Gushmot's not here, blast his pus-rot teeth."
The two Hloks were cursing each other and arguing violently when, moments later, a third company of Rucks galloped into the chamber. The Hlok leader of this band seemed enraged with the other two quarreling Hloks. "Ngash batang l&kiQh glog graktal doosh spturrskrank azg!'' he howled in the foul, harsh Sluk tongue. "Gnar skrikef" At mention of Gnar's name, Plooshgnak kicked a seated Ruck, and Boshlub cracked his whip onto the back of another and snarled orders. The first two Ruck companies fell into ragged ranks, jostling' and elbowing and grumbling. With a crack of Boshlub's lash, all the Rucks loped out through the northeast corridor. And the Round Chamber was left in dark silence. '
After a moment, Perry unsheathed Bane. The blue light coldly flamed from the jewel and down the blade, but as the Seven watched, it grew dimmer. "Let's go now," urged Perry, "before any more maggot-folk come to this way station."
A glance around the great room revealed only utter blackness; no light of torch could be seen flickering through any portal. The Seven eased open the hoods of their Dwarf-lanterns a bit, to let narrow shafts of radiance illuminate the way. Swiftly the companions crossed to the north tunnel and entered the passage.
The way became narrow in places, and at times chasms bore off to the right or left, and the company would walk along the shelved precipices. Fissures opened to either side, and Perry continued to make the choices dictated by Brega's instructions. The Warrow had fou,nd no surprises in the path, for the Brega Scroll was accurate and detailed. Yet though he had not been surprised, he was astounded by the sizes of the chambers they had passed through: the East Hall at Dawn-Gate had been two hundred yards in length, two hundred in width; the Mustering Hall at the Deep was a mile long and
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half that wide—according to Brega, who had seen its extent by the light of raging flames as the drawbridge over the Great Deep burned by Elf-set fire; the Great Chamber was a half-mile long and a quarter-mile wide. Enormous, the rooms were enormous. And the number of halls, tunnels, fissures, cracks, and additional passages leading away to other reaches of Drimmen-deeve indicated that the delvings of Kraggen-cor were intricate beyond imagination, for what the comrades had seen was incredibly complex and colossal—and they had seen but a minuscule portion oHhe whole.
Again ,the way sloped downward, and wide cracks appeared in the floor. Now Perry had to leap over three- and four-foot-wide crevices; considerable jumps for one who was only three and a half feet tall. The Squad came to a narrow shelf on the face of a precipice; a chasm yawned bottomless to their right. They edged for scores of paces along the wall above the rift before coming again to a wide ledge. The chasm narrowed as they walked onward, and soon they were once again striding through an arched tunnel.
They had walked, leapt, scrambled, and sidled for three hours since leaving the Round Chamber, covering some six miles. At last they came to the Grate Room, a small round chamber to the north side of the main passage. Behind them the cavern split four ways: the left-hand way was wide and led down; the two middle ways were narrow and twisting— one up, one down; and the right-hand way was the one whence they had just come down. Before them the passage ran on downward, heading for the still-distant Dusk-Door.
"We are yet one and twenty miles from our goal," announced Perry, "but ! think we must rest and eat before going on. Let us tarry in the Grate Room for a while."
Lord Kian and the others agreed; they were indeed weary, for hiding in a crevice from squabbling Rucks had been nearly as tiresome as would running from a pursuing Spaunen Swarm. "Take care not to step onto the old grillework," cautioned Perry as they stepped through the door, "for it is corroded and may crumble, and you would fall into the shaft it covers, said by The Raven Book to be in the center of the chamber floor."
The room they entered was perhaps twenty feet square with a low ceiling—certainly the smallest chamber they had seen
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in Kraggen-cor. Centered in the room, a huge rust-stained chain dangled down from a narrow, grate-covered square shaft set in the ceiling, and passed through a like grate placed in the floor, the mighty links appearing out of the constricting blackness above and disappearing into the darkness of the, strait shaft below. Avoiding the rust-worn grille covering the ebon hole, Perry, along with the others, flung his pack down to be rid of the burden. He took some crue, and leaned back against his soft bedroll and sighed. After a bit he asked, "What is the hour, Shannon?"
"It is nearly the middle of the night," answered the Elf. "We have just eight and forty hours before Durek tries the Door."
"Two full days," stated Kian. "One to get there, and one to work on the Door. It is well that at Durek's Council we put aside a day in our plan to account for delay, for we have used it, and used it all. Now let us hope we meet with.no further mischance, else we will not arrive in time to aid Durek."
Borin snorted in exasperation, "Had we come to the Roupd Chamber just a quarter hour sooner we would not have been forced to sit in that dark crack for seven hours listening to stupid Okhs bicker. May such mishaps elude us in the future."
"Ah, but there is the rub," smiled Shannon. "Perhaps all mishaps, accidents, or calamities could be avoided if only we knew when, where, or how they were to come about. Then we simply could be at a place a moment earlier or later or not at all; or we could change the how of things by moving, rtie rock that otherwise would be stumbled over; or we could tarn the blade a different way so that a finger would not be nicked; or we could do a multitude of other things to avoid all problems. But alas! it is not ours to know the morrow, and so only reasonable steps can be taken to turn aside misfortune. Of course, if we did know the future, life would be safe—but unspeakably dull."
"Mayhap the next time there will not be so many Grg," growled Delk, running his thumb along the blade of his'axe, "and we can solve the problem with a few quick strokes, disposing of the evidence in nearby cracks and crevices." Anval and Borin grunted in agreement.
"Let us rest an hour or so," suggested Lord Kian, whose thoughts were focused on their mission, "then press on west-