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Roger Zelazny. Sign of chaos
Atec Ноябрь 07 2007 02:48:28
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. I
continued my cautious advance, all of my senses alert. I could hear Coral
moving at my back, then I glimpsed her accompanying me on my left when the
passage widened. She had drawn her dagger, and she held it low and near to
her hip. No time now to speculate as to what my spell might have done to
her.
I halted as I came to the first of the two fallen forms. I prodded it
with the toe of my boot, ready to strike instantly should it spring into an
attack. Nothing. It felt limp, lifeless. I used my foot to turn it over, and
the head rolled back in the .direction of the cavemouth. In the light that
then fell upon it I beheld a half-decayed human face My nose had already
been informing me that this state was no mere illusion. I advanced upon the
other one and turned him, also. He, too, bore the appearance of a
decomposing corpse. While the first one clutched a dagger in his right hand,
the second was weaponless. Then I noted another dagger-on the floor, near
the live man's feet. I raised my eyes to him. This made no sense whatsoever.
I'd have judged the two figures upon the floor to have been dead for several
days, at least, and I had no idea as to what the standing man had been up
to.
"Uh. . . . Mind telling me what's going on?' I inquired.
"Damn you, Merlin!" he snarled, and I recognized the voice.
I moved in a slow arc, stepping over the fallen ones
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