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

tated, frowning face of a dwarf in black furs with cat ears
atop his head.
Just as he had studied the face in the painting, the man
at the ice pool now examined the features of the dwarf in
the valley below.

Chapter 3

The blackstone path wound and curved as it
wandered deeper into the Valley of Waykeep. It twisted
and turned oddly, often for no apparent reason. Some-
times it nearly doubled back on itself, so that the trav-
elers found themselves walking southward within easy
reach - sometimes even within sight - of where they had
just passed going northward. Then again, it would
straighten for a time, only to abruptly veer off to the east
or west, as though circling around some obstacle that
neither the dwarf nor the kender could see.
At times the path narrowed, becoming only six or
eight feet wide. In these places the big cats gathered along
its edges - sometimes a dozen or more, rumbling and
purring in feral anticipation - and the two were forced to

go in single file, running a gauntlet of swatting, searching
claws as the animals balanced just at the borders of the
path and strained forward, trying to reach them.
"These creatures are most decidedly unfriendly," Chess
mentioned as he dodged a huge, needle-clawed paw. As
it whipped past him, he rapped it sharply with his
hoopak. "Bad kitty!" he snapped. The cat's responding
growl was thunderous.
Just behind him, Chane ducked as a cat swatted at
him. "Stop stirring them up," he ordered the kender.
"You're just making matters worse."
"I don't know why they have to be so surly." The ken-
der shrugged. "Maybe they don't get fed regularly. I
wonder why this path twists and turns so much. Doesn't
it seem odd to you that a path should go to so much trou-
ble to go aroun'd things, if there aren't any things to go
around? I'll bet we've walked ten miles so far, and ha-
ven't gained more than a mile or two. You see, there it
goes again." He pointed with his hoopak. Ahead, the
black road turned abruptly to the left and disappeared
into forest. "Do you see any reason why we shouldn't
just go straight ahead?"
"I see about a dozen very good reasons," Chane
snapped, counting cats.
"I mean besides them. What do you suppose is ahead
there, that this path doesn't want us to see?"
Chane felt an extended claw graze his boot-top and