Книга только для ознакомления
. The black flame was farther
removed from the group.
A circular depression, with four or five concentric rings
of steps, allowed easy descent into the circle. Within the
circle rested a block of stone, square and solid.
"Behold the altar of godhood!" Erasmoth cried. "Behold
and tremble!"
A deeper pit opened in the floor before the altar. It was
from this ghastly hole that the unspeakable odor flowed, as
if all the foulness and perversion across the face of Krynn
had been gathered into one place. The priest led me around
this pit to stand before the altar.
Next in my recollection come images of my two
companions - the woman, so slender and wanton in her
god-inspired desire, and the man, his face distorted by
shadow and by the intensity of his passion, as he focused
upon the approaching ceremony. Kassandry, who had
ignored me during the approach to this central altar, now
turned her luminous eyes to my face.
She dropped her robe to the floor. She was naked,
except for a belt of leather and steel gauntlets on her wrists.
Two slender stilettos hung from the belt. Seizing one in
each hand, she raised them toward the roof of the cavern.
Erasmoth, too, lifted his hands. Together the priest and
priestess wailed a chant, repeating the beastlike sounds
over and over, their voices rising to a pitch of ecstasy. I had
no doubt but that the culmination of this ceremony would
be the plunging of those razor-edged blades into my breast.
I confess, Excellency, that the thought of my duties, of
the sacred trust of the historian, vanished from my mind
|
