Troy Denning - The Verdant Passage
Здесь есть возможность читать онлайн «Troy Denning - The Verdant Passage» весь текст электронной книги совершенно бесплатно (целиком полную версию без сокращений). В некоторых случаях можно слушать аудио, скачать через торрент в формате fb2 и присутствует краткое содержание. Год выпуска: 1991, ISBN: 1991, Издательство: TSR, Жанр: Фэнтези, на английском языке. Описание произведения, (предисловие) а так же отзывы посетителей доступны на портале библиотеки ЛибКат.
- Название:The Verdant Passage
- Автор:
- Издательство:TSR
- Жанр:
- Год:1991
- ISBN:9781560761211
- Рейтинг книги:4 / 5. Голосов: 1
-
Избранное:Добавить в избранное
- Отзывы:
-
Ваша оценка:
- 80
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
The Verdant Passage: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация
Предлагаем к чтению аннотацию, описание, краткое содержание или предисловие (зависит от того, что написал сам автор книги «The Verdant Passage»). Если вы не нашли необходимую информацию о книге — напишите в комментариях, мы постараемся отыскать её.
The Verdant Passage — читать онлайн бесплатно полную книгу (весь текст) целиком
Ниже представлен текст книги, разбитый по страницам. Система сохранения места последней прочитанной страницы, позволяет с удобством читать онлайн бесплатно книгу «The Verdant Passage», без необходимости каждый раз заново искать на чём Вы остановились. Поставьте закладку, и сможете в любой момент перейти на страницу, на которой закончили чтение.
Интервал:
Закладка:
“Perhaps I should put in a good word for you with the high templar,” Rikus offered.
Behind Boaz, the gaj, too, moved forward, pushing its pincers through the bars of its cage in an effort to snag the trainer. The mandibles were too short to reach the half-elf, but an idea occurred to Rikus that might make it possible to kill Boaz and save Sadira, without sacrificing his dream of freedom.
The trainer sneered at Rikus’s offer of aid. “I doubt that I’ll let you live long enough to speak with Lord Tithian.”
Gaj, if you want Boaz, here’s what to do , Rikus thought, hoping the beast could hear his thoughts as it had heard Boaz’s. He laid out a simple plan.
He must be alive , came the reply. If he dies before my antennae touch his head, his mind will be spoiled for me .
Yes , Rikus agreed. He grabbed the bars of his gate, then said to Boaz, “After I’m free, the first thing I’m going to do is track you into a dark street-”
The mul did not have a chance to finish his threat. Behind the trainer, the gaj threw itself at its gate. A tremendous crash echoed through the animal shed as the beast’s carapace struck the iron bars, triggering an immediate chorus of alarmed squeals and roars from the other pens.
As Rikus had hoped, the startled trainer leaped away from the gaj, straight into the mul’s waiting arms. Rikus grabbed Boaz by the collar, pulling the half-elf toward the gate. The astonished trainer started to cry for help, but Rikus slapped a massive hand over the man’s mouth.
“Rikus!” gasped Neeva. “What are you doing?”
“Repaying Sadira for saving my life,” the mul responded. “Get his keys and unlock our gate.”
Don’t kill him! the gaj urged, settling back into its pen.
“You’ll have him alive-more or less,” Rikus answered, squeezing Boaz’s mouth with all his strength. He felt a series of satisfying pops as the half-elf’s front teeth broke away at the roots.
Boaz groaned in pain, then reached for the dirk at his belt. Rikus grabbed the trainer’s wrist with his free hand. “Wrong move,” he said, pulling the offending arm through the gate. He pressed the forearm against an iron bar until he heard a sharp crack. A muffled wail escaped Boaz’s covered lips.
“You’ll get us killed,” Neeva said, stepping to Rikus’s side. She removed the key ring from Boaz’s belt.
“Not if my plan works,” Rikus replied, giving his fighting partner a confident wink. “They’ll think the gaj did it.”
“They’d better,” Neeva said, moving to the gate lock and fitting keys into it.
Rikus looked at the dwarf, who still held onto Anezka, though it no longer appeared that she needed to be restrained. “Yarig, you’ll have to lift the gate for Neeva to crawl under.”
“I don’t like it,” the dwarf said. “You shouldn’t have done something like this without asking us first.”
Boaz tried to pull free. Without looking away from Yarig, Rikus slammed him back into the gate. “Don’t you think asking would have ruined the surprise?”
“That doesn’t matter,” Yarig answered stubbornly. “This affects all of us. I don’t care if you are the champion. You can’t make decisions like this on your own.”
Rikus rolled his eyes, then let go of Boaz’s broken wrist. “You’re right,” the mul said. “I’ll let him go.”
Anezka shook her bead urgently.
Neeva turned a key in the gate lock and a loud click echoed in the cell. “Make up your mind, Yarig,” she said.
“We’ll push Boaz over to the gaj, lock ourselves back in, and toss the keys in front of its pen,” Rikus said, once more slamming the half-elf into the gate-this time only because he enjoyed doing so. “Everyone will think he was drunk, wandering around in here, and got too close to the cage.”
Yarig released the halfling and slowly lifted the gate. Once he had raised it high enough for Neeva to crawl beneath, she went into the corridor and restrained Boaz from the outside while Rikus left the pen.
In both directions, the long corridor was lined with steel gates similar to the one from beneath which the mul had just crawled. In a few places, he could see claws or tentacles or vaguely humanlike hands protruding from between the bars, but otherwise every pen appeared identical.
As Rikus stepped into the corrider, Neeva shoved Boaz toward a cage a short distance away. A powerful, acrid odor rose from the pen.
“Rikus, maybe we should feed Boaz to a raakle instead of the gaj,” Neeva said.
No, Rikus! the gaj whined. You promised!
The trainer cringed, and his eyes glazed with horror. Rikus did not blame him for being frightened. Raakles were brilliantly colored birds the size of half-giants, but their mouths were short tubular beaks no larger around than a man’s fingers. They digested their prey by gripping it with their powerful, three-clawed feet, then spitting sticky acid over it. This fluid reduced bone and flesh alike to a pulpy ooze that the bird sucked up through its small mouth.
Though he would have enjoyed hearing Boaz scream in the terrible agony of being digested alive, Rikus shook his head. “I gave my word,” he said. “Besides, being eaten by a raakle can’t compare to the pain the gaj will cause Boaz’s mind.”
“If you say so.” Neeva shoved the trainer toward the gaj’s pen.
Rikus laid a hand on his fighting partner’s shoulder and shook his head. “I’ll take him,” Rikus said. He substituted his hand for the one that Neeva had been using to hold Boaz’s bleeding mouth closed. “I want the pleasure of feeding him to the gaj myself.”
The gaj thrust its mandibles as far into the corridor as they would go. Rikus stepped toward the pen.
Boaz mumbled something at the mul. Though the trainer was doing his best to appear menacing and confident, fear and panic softened his sharp features.
The gladiator moved the hand covering the half-elf’s mouth just far enough to hear what he had to say. “You’ll never get away with this,” Boaz hissed. “Tithian will know what happened, and Neeva will be the one who pays.”
“You’re the only one who’s going to pay,” Rikus interrupted. The mul smashed a fist into the half-elf’s rib cage. Boaz cried out, then began to wheeze.
Please, Rikus , the gaj asked. Give him to me now .
Boaz tried to call for help, but with his broken ribs and teeth, only incoherent mumbles came from his mouth. Rikus smiled, then pushed the half-elf across the corridor. The gaj’s barbed mandibles closed on the trainer’s abdomen, and a pair of whiplike antennae lashed out of the pen, entwining themselves around its victim’s brow.
Despite his injuries, Boaz found the strength to scream.
SEVEN
The instant Agis stepped into the hastily erected slaveyard, his eyes fell on a white-haired man standing amidst the crowd of nobles who had gathered there. Though the old fellow was only a few inches taller than the people around him, he stood out from the jabbering throng by virtue of his silent demeanor. Over his broad shoulders he wore an ivory-colored cape, and in his hand he carried an obsidian-pommeled cane that left no doubt in Agis’s mind that the man was the sorcerer who had returned his dagger to him in Shadow Square.
“What’s he doing at a slave auction?” Agis murmured.
“Buying slaves, I suspect,” Caro replied sarcastically. “Isn’t that what one does at these iniquitous affairs?”
“You asked to come, Caro. If you don’t intend to be good company, perhaps I should send you home,” Agis replied.
Along with fifty other lords and the sorcerer, Agis and Caro stood beneath the Elven Bridge, an ancient structure spanning the dusty bed of the Forgotten River. According to legend, the magnificent bridge had once crossed a broad, slow-moving estuary of glistening water. Now the edifice was no more than a useless relic, for all that remained below it was a short bend of dry gulch sealed at both ends by piles of rubble. The only signs of water in the riverbed were white crusts of calcium and lime left on the bridge piers two decades past-the last time it had rained in Tyr.
Читать дальшеИнтервал:
Закладка:
Похожие книги на «The Verdant Passage»
Представляем Вашему вниманию похожие книги на «The Verdant Passage» списком для выбора. Мы отобрали схожую по названию и смыслу литературу в надежде предоставить читателям больше вариантов отыскать новые, интересные, ещё непрочитанные произведения.
Обсуждение, отзывы о книге «The Verdant Passage» и просто собственные мнения читателей. Оставьте ваши комментарии, напишите, что Вы думаете о произведении, его смысле или главных героях. Укажите что конкретно понравилось, а что нет, и почему Вы так считаете.