"David Eddings. Castle of wizardry enchanters' end game (The Belgariad, Part two)" - читать интересную книгу автора

time, shall we?"
"But what if-"
"Garion," she said with a pained look, "don't belabor the `what ifs,'
please. If you start that, you'll just worry everybody to death."
"You say `what if' to grandfather all the time," he accused.
"That's different," she replied.
They rode hard for the next several days through a series of passes
with the dry, bitter chill pressing at them like some great weight. Silk
rode back often to look for any signs of pursuit, but their ruse seemed to
have fooled the Murgos. Finally, about noon on a cold, sunless day when
the wind was kicking up dust clouds along the horizon, they reached the
broad, arid valley through which the south caravan route wound. They took
cover behind a low hill while Silk rode on ahead to take a quick look.
"Thinkest thou that Taur Urgas hath joined in the search for us?"
Mandorallen, dressed again in his armor, asked Belgarath.
"It's hard to say for sure," the old sorcerer replied. "He's a very
unpredictable man."
"There's a Murgo patrol headed east on the caravan route," Silk
reported when he returned. "It will be another half hour or so until
they're out of sight."
Belgarath nodded.
"Do you think we'll be safe once we cross over into Mishrak ac Thull?"
Durnik asked.
"We can't count on it," Belgarath replied. "Gethel, the king of the
Thulls, is afraid of Taur Urgas, so he wouldn't make any kind of fuss
about a border violation if Taur Urgas decided to follow us."
They waited until the Murgos had crossed a low ridge to the east and
then moved out again.

For the next two days they rode steadily to the northwest. The terrain
grew less rocky after they crossed into the land of the Thulls, and they
saw the telltale dust clouds far behind them that spoke of mounted Murgo
search parties. It was late in the afternoon of a murky day when they
finally reached the top of the eastern escarpment.
Barak glanced back over his shoulder at the dust clouds behind them,
then pulled his horse in beside Belgarath's.
"Just how rough is the ground leading down into the Vale?" he asked.
"It's not the easiest trail in the world."
"Those Murgos are less than a day behind us, Belgarath. If we have to
pick our way down, they'll be on top of us before we make it."
Belgarath pursed his lips, squinting at the dust clouds on the southern
horizon. "Perhaps you're right," he said.
"Maybe we'd better think this through." He raised his hand to call a
halt. "It's time to make a couple of decisions," he told the rest of them.
"The Murgos are a little closer than we really want them to be. It takes
two to three days to make the descent into the Vale, and there are places
where one definitely doesn't want to be rushed."
"We could always go on to that ravine we followed coming up," Silk
suggested. "It only takes a half day to go down that way."
"But Lord Hettar and the Algar clans of King Cho-Hag await us in the