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

The kender leaned back against a rock, cupping his
hands behind his head. "I thought I'd have a look around
that valley down there... the one the cats chased you
out of. It's called Waykeep, or some such thing."
"The valley?"
"Or some part of it. No one seems to know very much
about it. Hardly anyone goes there."
Chane looked at the great pelt, pegged out for curing,
and at the daggerlike fang he was fitting with a handle. "I
can see why," he said.
"Actually, I was on my way to Pax Tharkas, but I got
sidetracked," the kender admitted. "There's a lot to see in
these mountains. And a lot not to see. Did you notice
that valley the cats came from, how it just sort of fades
out of sight when you try to see it? Pretty mysterious if
you ask me."
Even if you don't ask, Chane was thinking.
"I had a nice talk with a hill dwarf a few months ago.
He'd lost an amulet and I helped him find it, and when I
showed him my map he said the blank space between the
west ranges and the Vale of Respite must be the Valley of
Waykeep. He doesn't know anything about it, except it
doesn't show on maps and nobody goes there. Especially
wizards. So that's why I'm sidetracked and not on my
way to Pax Tharkas. You don't look like a hill dwarf. You

look a little different. Are you a mountain dwarf?"
"I'm from Thorbardin," Chane said, paying scant at-
tention to the chattering kender. The more the creature
talked, the more glassy-eyed he felt. It was like trying to
listen to twenty or thirty anvils, all at once.
"Is that why your beard grows back that way?" Chess
stared at him in bright-eyed curiosity. "Do all Thor-
bardin dwarves have swept-back whiskers?"
"No, but I do. It's just the way they grow." He looked
up from his work, thoughtfully. 'What kind of maps do
you have?"
"Oh, all kinds," the kender spread his hands. "Big ones
and little ones, some drawn on linen, some on
parchment - I even have one drawn on a... no, I used
to have that, but I don't now. I ate it." He glanced at the
remains of their meal.
"Maps of what?" Chane growled.
The kender blinked at him. "Places. That's what maps
are. They're pictures of places. I make a lot of maps. Of
places. When I go home to Hylo someday... that's
where I'm from, did I tell you that?"
"I don't know." The dwarf's scowl was becoming
fierce. "What places?"
"- I'll be able to show everybody where I've been."