"Mary Kirchoff. Kendermore ("Dragonlance Preludes I" #2) (angl)" - читать интересную книгу автора

The dwarf hurried up to the buckboard and rummaged through a
large leather pouch at the side. "Now, where is that thing...," she
muttered, pushing a loose sheaf of papers around impatiently.

"Woodrow!" she yelled without looking up.

"Yes, ma'am?" he said quietly at her side.

"Oh!" she cried, startled. "Don't creep around like that, dear,"
she scolded. "Get the kender settled in the wagon while I find that
blasted map. I've got to see if I can't shave some time off the return
trip, or we may as well throw some of this stuff out right now."

Tas's ears perked up. "Map? You're looking for a map? I've got
lots of maps. My family makes maps." He thumped his chest proudly.
"I'm a mapmaker. It's what I do!-

"Really?" Gisella asked, looking up, her face half hopeful, half
dubious.

"Yes. Here." He reached into his fur-trimmed vest and pulled out
a surprising number of rolled pieces of parchment.

Peering closely at the numbers and shapes scribbled on the upper
left corner of each, he finally selected one and unfurled it on the
ground. It was slightly faded and the corners were torn, but otherwise
the map was in good shape and readable. "That's odd," Tas said,
blinking at the page. "Solace isn't on here. Well, it's a small
village, and everyone knows where it is," he concluded. "It's just
west of Xak Tsaroth, which is marked. He traced his finger from that
city to where he knew Solace was.

"Now, I'll bet you came up the Southway Road from Pax Tharkas,
right? Everyone does." Gisella nodded, studying the map over his
shoulder.

"Look at this." Tasslehoff drew an invisible line to the right
edge of the map. "The region of Balifor is almost seven hundred miles
straight east of here, and that's right next to the city of
Kendermore. We'll have to climb a few mountains and travel through
some thick forests, but we should save a lot of time over going the
long way to the south." He did some quick figuring in his head. "If we
really hurry, we should be able to make it to the city in near to a
month."

Something about the plan bothered Gisella. "Let me see that,"
she said, indicating the map, her expression puzzled. "I know what's
different! I don't see any of the landmarks here that were on my other
map."