"Joel Rosenberg - 02 - The Sword And The Chain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rosenberg Joel C)

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Introduction

It started as a game. Just a quiet, pleasant evening for seven college students.

Karl Cullinane, Jason Parker, James Michael Finnegan, Doria Perlstein, Walter Slovotsky, Andrea
Andropolous, and Lou Riccetti sat down for an evening of fantasy gaming. It was going to be fun. That's
all it was supposed to be.

But then gamemaster Professor Arthur Deighton somehow transferred them to the Other Side. Without
warning, they found themselves in the world they thought existed only in their imaginations, in the bodies
of the characters they had been pretending to be. Short, skinny Karl Cullinane became a tall, well-muscled
warrior; crippled James Michael Finnegan became the powerful dwarf, Ahira Bandylegs. All seven of
them changed into different people with unusual talents.

Suddenly it wasn't a game anymore.

Jason Parker was the first to die. He spent the last few moments of his life kicking on the end of a spear.

The others survived, but now they weren't playing, they were fighting to stay alive, to escape the wrath
and weapons of warriors and wizards, slavers and lords.

They had to find the Gate Between Worlds and return home.

They had to, and they did—but in the doing, they lost far too much. Ahira died at the Gate. Doria went
catatonic. Nothing could be done about that at home. But, back on the Other Side, the Matriarch of the
Healing Hand Society could bring Ahira back to life, could cure Dona's shattered mind.

So they returned to the Other Side. And, yes, the Matriarch was willing to help them, just this once.

But nothing is ever free. There were prices to pay, and promises to make. Promises that would be kept.

No matter what the cost.



CHAPTER ONE: Profession

"Where we do go from here?" Karl Cullinane asked, sit-ting next to Andrea Andropolous on the largest of
the flat stones surrounding the ashes of supper's campfire. He squinted at the setting sun as he sipped his

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coffee.