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

poised over a table as if to eat, with spoon in hand, sat another perfect
statue. The only questions remaining were whether it had been Shang, the
basilisk, or some hideous mesalliance of the two that had turned the people of
Mormoreth to stone, and whether any had escaped.
Appalled, Garth explored further. It was as he gazed sadly at a child,
petrified while clutching a doll that had remained untransformed, that he
heard a noise.
He froze. Again he heard it. The sound was in the street outside, and
approaching. Moving as quietly as he knew how, Garth crossed to the nearest
window; he was still on the ground floor. He peered cautiously out, and to his
astonishment saw a man approaching; the astonishment was not so much that a
man was walking the streets of Mormoreth, but that Garth recognized him. It
was Dansin, the bandit.
Seeing in the bandit leader as good a source of information as he was
likely to find, Garth sprang through the window, scattering shattered glass
across the street. Before Dansin could do anything but start in surprise at
the noise, he found the overman's drawn sword at his throat.
"Man, I would know where to find an entrance to the crypts."
Dansin stammered, "What crypts?" His hand crept toward his vest, but
Garth moved faster, and drew forth an intricately carved wooden rod, perhaps
an inch in diameter and a foot long.
"I take it this is the device you used to imprison me at our last
encounter. How does it work?"
"I...you swore not to harm me."
"I swore I would not kill you; nor shall I. However, should you refuse
me, you will lose your right hand at the wrist. I want two things: the
location of the crypt entrance, and the means of using this talisman."
"I know nothing of any crypt, I swear by the Fifteenl"
"You do know how to use this rod."
"Yes."
"Then explain it."
With much hesitation, the bandit did so; it was worked by pressing
various of its carved surfaces in certain sequences. Garth kept Dansin within
reach while he tested this information, and was gratified to find it accurate.
"Very good, thief. Now, why are you in Mormoreth?"
"I came to warn Shang of our defeat and your approach."
"How did he respond to your warning?"
"He laughed; he said he would meet you at the gate, and permitted me to
stay, so that you would not meet me on the road. Then but an hour ago he
returned to the palace in a rage and ordered me thence."
"Very well, then; you may go your way." Garth sheathed his sword, and in
an instant Dansin was fleeing toward the gate as if pursued by demons.
Garth watched him go, then turned his own steps in the opposite
direction. He had now been reminded that Shang dwelt in the palace. Further,
Shang had admitted that he derived much of his magic from the presence of the
basilisk. Therefore, it seemed likely that there was an entrance to the
catacombs somewhere in or near this palace. If the palace in question were the
only one in the city, which it appeared to be from the manner in which it was
referred to, then in all likelihood it lay in the center of the city, there
being no high ground in this flat-bottomed valley. Thus, Garth headed for the