"Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - Kender, Gully Dwarves, and Gnomes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weis Margaret)

wood that had once been the shelter's table.
"It's something," he muttered. "Sturm, come give me a
hand."
Alone with Tas, Tanis went down on his heels. Mutiny
lurked in Tas's long brown eyes. There was a stubborn set
to his jaw that told Tanis that the only way he'd get the
kender to stay behind would be to give him a charge that he
considered, if not as interesting, at least as important as the
task of gathering fuel for a fire.
"Tas, now listen to me. We don't have many choices.
I've never seen a storm like this one come up so suddenly or
so early. But it's here, and tonight it will be so cold that we
will not survive without a fire."
"I know! That's why - "
"No. Let me finish. I need you to stay here with Flint.
It's going to be a dangerous trip out for wood. The tracks
we made only a short while ago are gone. I'll barely be able
to find the landmarks I need to get back to the pines. I have
to know that you'll both be here if we need you."
"But, Tanis, you'll NEED me to help with the wood-
gathering."
The offer, Tanis knew, was sincere . . . for the moment.
But as clearly as he might see through a stream to the
sparkling sand below, that clearly did he see the
mischievous kender-logic dancing in Tas's brown eyes. Tas
had no fear of the killing cold, the battering winds. The
prospect of the journey back to the pines held only joyous
anticipation and a chance to satisfy some of that
unquenchable curiosity that had brought the kender to the
crumbling edge of many a catastrophe before now.
Well, I'm afraid! he thought. And it won't hurt for Tas to
know why if it keeps him here.
"Tas, the best way to make certain we don't survive this
night is to scatter, all four of us, all over this mountain. That
will be the fastest way to die. We're going to be careful. But
Sturm and I have to be able to depend on you two being
here just in case one of us needs to come back for help.
Understand?"
Tas nodded slowly, trying to ease his disappointment
with the sudden understanding that Tanis was trusting him,
depending on him.
"And I can count on you?"
"Yes, you can count on me," Tas said solemnly.
Privately he thought that staying behind, no matter how
virtuous it made him feel right now, might be just the least
bit boring.
Despite the cold and the bitter wind chasing snow in
through the open doorway, Tanis found a smile for the
kender. "Good. Now why don't you give Flint a hand, and
tell Sturm that we should be leaving."