"Константин Бояндин. The Guardian ("Истории Ралиона") " - читать интересную книгу автора

reached the door. It was unexpectedly dry here, with warm air coming from
nowhere. The only source of light was a slight phosphorescence of the walls.
The Andrynx rune glimmered faintly.
"Should I open the door ?" Nlaminer asked in low voice. Rhissa shook
her head and listened to the sounds that came from behind the door. Nlaminer
heard nothing but howling of the wind getting louder. At last, Rhissa
touched the door and it silently slid, opening another passage, lit with the
same shadows of light and giving an eerie feeling. They heard an echo when
they made first steps, as if someone were following them close.
There was noone else here; the passage led them down and down, until
they stood on the top of another stone ladder, vanishing into glimmering
void somewhere far below.
As Nlaminer descended, always ready to react, part of his mind drifted
back to the days of the past. He went as if sleepwalking, noiselessly and
steadily.

* * *

After he healed his scratches, Nlaminer walked the dust-covered
passages and streets of the huge underground complex, deserted for some
unknown reason and turned into the lair of every nasty being one could
imagine. Twice he confronted huge spiders, four feet tall, who tried to make
a food storage out of him. The only weapon he had was his silver sword
Protector, inscribed with runes that made it deadly against the undead. He
managed to slay both the spiders without being sprinkled by their venom.
After thinking for a while, he cut off their venom bags and put them into
the special silver containers he was always carrying.
The City of Singara seemed to transform into a monster pit.
The rest of the day he moved outside, to the levels where the tunnel to
the outside should be. He cleared just enough room to make camp, when he
heard feet running somewhere near. His sense of danger warned there was no
joke attack, and Nlaminer, having hastily collected his possessions, broke
out with his Protector.
There were several shadow-like creatures surrounding some figure,
defending with brightly shining pole. The shadows emanated something very
dark and forbidding and Nlaminer rushed to help the unfortunate adventurer.
The Protector began to glow; the enemy was some undead creatures. The
only noise was the hiss of the poles encircling the adventurer; the shadows
tried to touch him, but with no success. The adventurer had no chance; there
was nowhere to escape. The time was short, and Nlaminer struck the nearest
shadow, emerging out of darkness like a furious demon.
The shadow he had hit dwindled and fled; Nlaminer sliced it again and
the terrible ghost vanished with deep sorrowful howling. Two of the five
remaining shadow monsters attacked Nlaminer from two directions at once.
Nlaminer span around and caught a brief look at the adventurer he was
helping. It was a small reptile, eyes blazing with anger. It looked at
Nlaminer and cried something. He did not hear it; there was no time and,
diving beneath the black hand descending upon his head he lunged back.
Another moan, another spirit disappearing.
He was raising his shining blade again when a darkness fell and the icy