"Dan Parkinson. The Gates of Thorbardin ("DragonLance Saga Heroes II" #2) (angl)" - читать интересную книгу автора

able, if precarious, holds for his feet. As a mountain
dwarf, climbing was second nature to him, and he had
little patience for detours.
The sheer face was almost vertical, but it was rough
and broken, and Chane could find purchase. As he low-
ered himself below the edge, he saw the kender strolling
happily away, down the easy slope to the north.
It was eighty feet to the bottom of the rock, as nearly
as Chane could judge. Slow going, but he kept at it,
working his way down with the stubborn dexterity of his
kind. Born in Thorbardin, largest kingdom of the moun-

tain dwarves of Krynn - and maybe the only one, for all
Chane knew - swarming over rock faces was as natural
to him as delving caverns and tunnels. Dug from the bed-
rock of a mountain range, Thorbardin was more than a
city. It was an entire complex of cities, all deep within the
mountains. And it had many levels. In one way or an-
other, Chane had been climbing rock all his life.
The dwarf was nearing the bottom when he heard
shouts and scuffling above. A rain of pebbles pelted
Chane. He looked up to see the kender flinging himself
over the ledge, seeming to fly out into thin air for a mo-
ment before he twisted around, thrust his forked staff at
the face of the cliff, wedged it into a crack, and swung
from it. Above Chess a great black head with feral yel-
low eyes looked down. A big, padded paw with ranked
claws extended and swatted downward, trying to reach
him. The kender pulled himself hand over hand to the
rock face, clung there, released his staff, and thrust it
into another crack farther down. "The bird was right," he
called. "I think I'll try it your way."
Chane let himself down another set of holds, and sud-
denly it was raining gravel again. From above came the
sound of splintering rock, and another yell. The next in-
stant, Chane was knocked from his holds as the kender
landed on him. A tangle of arms and legs, pack, pouch,
and forked staff, the kender and the dwarf thumped onto
the slope at the foot of the cliff and rolled downward,
gathering momentum - a black-and-motley ball heading
for the maze of tumblestone below, leaving a cloud of
dust in its wake. Through the fallen rock they went,
threading this way and that among boulders as the rise
and fall of the slope guided them. They bounded off a
boulder, careened from another, shot through a hole in
the base of two coupled stones, and zoomed off a lower
ledge. Water glinted below, rising to meet them, then
closed over them with a splash.
The kender surfaced, bobbing like a cork. He sput-
tered, blinked, and headed for the nearest solid surface -