"Karl Edward Wagner - Cold Light" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wagner Karl Edward)

frightened her with the promise of death that lurked within! But
now Rehhaile thought she sensed an even more haunted glare.
"No, Rehhaile!" He said with slow intensity. "Can't you
understand! Your life is only a brief ripple across the pool, and
mine is a constant flow of waves into infinity! Your ripple is only
noted in passing and swept aside!"
She shivered with a coldness not of the wind.
"And do you love me?" he returned.
"No!" she answered him softly. "For you there can be no love.
I can only pity you and try to soothe that which can never be
healed."
"I think you begin to understand," Kane said with a bitter
laugh. Then soon they lay together under the pale moon. And
about them the ghosts of dead Demornte slipped by unheeded.
 IV. The Crusader in Sebbei
"Their faces are as empty as the skulls we've passed!"
commented Dron Missa, craning his long neck to stare down a
seated townsman who stolidly watched them ride by. "Bunch of
fish faces! I've eaten baked fish that had more intelligence in
their boiled eyes than these cretins."
"Thought they ate only flesh in Waldann—raw flesh at that,"
scoffed Cereb Ak-Cetee.
Missa laughed unappreciatively. "Nothing wrong with raw
flesh. Tastes good with a little salt. Once ate a squirrel raw on a
bet—whiskers to tail with the thing still kicking. I've hated the
little furry bastards ever since."
"How about keeping your mind on finding that tavern,"
interrupted Gaethaa caustically. His nerves had been on edge
since entering Sebbei. Ruined cities were no novelty to him. But
the utter lack of curiosity shown by the people was unnerving.
Their indifference upon seeing a band of heavily armed strangers
ride into their city was unsettling and something of a subtle
insult.
The first person they encountered in this city of ghosts had
been a disheveled fat man with a yellow streaked beard. He was
sitting loosely before a stagnant fountain near the unguarded city
gates. With a vapid expression he had watched their approach,
then scurried off giggling when Alidore stopped to question him.
It was not an auspicious welcome.
 Several others that they met had turned away or closed their
doors when hailed, and Gaethaa had grimly recalled the stories
heard while crossing the Lomarn that in Sebbei there dwelled
only ghosts and madmen. Still it seemed evident now that they
would confront no organized opposition from the townspeople.
This would make their mission one of more direct
attack—Gaethaa had been prepared to use more subtle tactics
should it have developed that Kane had established himself as
ruler of the dead city.
Finally, persistent questioning of those they met indicated that
someone named Gavein, who held the office of Lord Mayor, was