"Lawrence Watt-Evans - Dus 1 - Lure Of The Basilisk" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watt-Evans Lawrence)

beast stood in a small plaza, perhaps a hundred feet across, its sides lined
with merchants' stalls, with a street opening from the center of each side,
save where the gate occupied one. The merchants' stalls were as empty and
deserted as the farms Garth had passed outside the city, and the three streets
were also uninhabited. An unnaturally complete silence hung over the scene.
The overman's footsteps on the packed dirt of the market and the snuffling of
the warbeast were the only sounds.
Curious, Garth crossed to one of the abandoned stalls and saw that the
goods the owner had hoped to sell still lay spread out for the customer's
inspection, a thin layer of dust hiding the details of the embroidered cloths.
In the next booth an assortment of pins, needles, and bodkins lay strewn about
in disarray, while a statue stood almost lost in the shadowy interior, a
life-size figure of a man seated crosslegged, with dust obscuring the folds of
the careen garments.
Leaving this unprofitable investigation, Garth led Koros into the street
directly opposite the shattered gate, and proceeded cautiously deeper into the
city.
The buildings, although dusty and falling into disrepair, were beautiful
and well built, mostly of the same white marble as the city walls. Although
most were two or three stories in height, Garth could see three of the dozen
towers he had admired from across the valley, but still saw no indication of
their purpose. Elaborate fountains, now dry and silent, and gardens and
planters, now dead and brown from lack of watering, were common; the homes and
shops were graceful and elegant even now. Innumerable statues stood on
balconies, beside doorways, in gardens, even placed apparently at random in
the streets, or blocking doorways; such a profusion of statuary seemed the
only lapse in the exquisite taste of the city's inhabitants. Garth wondered
once again what had become of them. Had Shang slaughtered them all?
Investigating more closely the oddly scattered sculpture, Garth saw that
all were of an amazing lifelikeness; were it not for the uniform gray of the
stone, many could be mistaken for living people. Nor were they limited to the
usual gracefully posed noblemen of most Orûnian art; the statues represented
merchants, housewives, farmers, and children. Glancing down a side-street, the
overman saw a cluster that represented gaudily clad young women whose lowcut
dresses and curled hair clearly marked them as ladies of pleasure-as Garth
knew from his stay in Skelleth. Ordunin, of course, had no need for such,
overmen being what they were.
The unbroken stillness was unsettling. Further, Garth realized that he
had no idea where an entrance to the crypts might be found. To search the
entire city for one could easily take weeks, and although Garth himself had no
objection to such a delay, he knew that Koros would be hungry again in a day
or two, and that it was most unlikely it would find game in a valley of
farmland. Having no wish to risk letting the monster go hungry, Garth had no
intention of resorting to a systematic search; instead, he determined to find
an inhabitant and question him or her. Surely Shang had not wiped out
everyone!
Upon brief reflection, Garth decided that the most likely place to find
either living people or other useful indications was in one of the towers.
Thus he entered the nearest, to be confronted with a sight that confirmed what
he had subconsciously suspected but refused to admit. Seated in a chair,