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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
return it to its plane, though the statue could be broken."
Again Pook's look soured. The item had already become too precious for him
to consider losing it.
"I assure you that destroying the statue would not prove an easy task,"
LaValle continued. "Its magic is quite potent. The mightiest smith in all the
Realms could not scratch it with his heaviest hammer!"
Pook was satisfied. "Come to me," he ordered the cat, extending his hand.
Guenhwyvar obeyed and flattened its ears as Pook gently stroked the soft
black coat.
"I have a task," Pook announced suddenly, turning an excited glance at
LaValle, "a memorable and marvelous task! The first task for Guenhwvvar."
LaValle's eyes lit up at the pure pleasure stamped across Pook's face.
"Fetch me Regis," Pook told LaValle. "Let Guenhwyvar's first kill be the
halfling I most despise!"
* * *
Exhausted from his ordeal in the Cells of Nine, and from the various
tortures Pook had put him through, Regis was easily shoved flat to his face
before Pook's throne. The halfling struggled to his feet, determined to accept
the next torture - even if it meant death - with dignity.
Pook waved the guards out of the room. "Have you enjoyed your stay with us?"
he teased Regis.
Regis brushed the mop of hair back from his face. "Acceptable," he replied.
"The neighbors are noisy, though, growling and purring all the night through."
"Silence!" Pook snapped. He looked at LaValle, standing beside the great
chair. "He will find little humor here," the guildmaster said with a venomous
chuckle.
Regis had passed beyond fear, though, into resignation. "You have won," he
said calmly, hoping to steal some of the pleasure from Pook. "I took your
pendant and was caught. If you believe that crime is deserving of death, then
kill me."
"Oh, I shall!" Pook hissed. "I had planned that from the start, but I knew
not the appropriate method."
Regis rocked back on his heels. Perhaps he wasn't as composed as he had
hoped.
"Guenhwyvar," Pook called.
"Guenhwyvar?" Regis echoed under his breath.
"Come to me, my pet."
The halfling's jaw dropped to his chest when the magical cat slipped out of
the half-opened door to LaValle's room.
"Wh-Where did you get him?" Regis stuttered.
"Magnificent, is he not?" Pook replied. "But do not worry, little thief. You
shall get a closer look." He turned to the cat.
"Guenhwyvar, dear Guenhwyvar," Pook purred, "this little thief wronged your
master. Kill him, my pet, but kill him slowly. I want to hear his screams."
Regis stared into the panther's wide eyes. "Calm, Guenhwyvar," he said as
the cat took a slow, hesitant stride his way. Truly it pained Regis to see the
wondrous panther under the command of one as vile as Pook. Guenhwyvar belonged
with Drizzt.
But Regis couldn't spend much time considering the implications of the cat's
appearance. His own future became his primary concern. "He is the one," Regis
cried to Guenhwyvar, pointing at Pook. "He commands the evil one who took us
from your true master, the evil one your true master seeks!"
"Excellent!" Pook laughed, thinking Regis to be grasping at a desperate lie
to confuse the animal. "This show may yet be worth the agony I have endured at
your hands, thief Regis!"
LaValle shifted uneasily, understanding more of the truth to Regis's words.
"Now, my pet!" Pook commanded. "Bring him pain!"
Guenhwyvar growled lowly, eyes narrowed.
"Guenhwyvar," Regis said again, backing away a step. "Guenhwyvar, you know
me."
The cat showed no indication that it recognized the halfling. Compelled by
its master's voice, it crouched and inched across the floor toward Regis.
"Guenhwyvar!" Regis cried, feeling along the wall for an escape.
"That is the cat's name," Pook laughed, still not realizing the halfling's
honest recognition of the beast. "Good-bye, Regis. Take comfort in knowing that
I shall remember this moment for the rest of my life!"
The panther flattened its ears and crouched lower, tamping down its back
paws for better balance. Regis rushed to the door, though he had no doubt that
it was locked, and Guenhwyvar leaped, impossibly quick and accurate. Regis
barely realized that the cat was upon him.
Pasha Pook's ecstasy, though, proved short-lived. He jumped from his chair,
hoping for a better view of the action, as Guenhwyvar buried Regis. Then the cat
vanished, slowly fading away.
The halfling, too, was gone.
"What?" Pook cried. "That is it? No blood?" He spun on LaValle. "Is that how
the thing kills?"
The wizard's horrified expression told Pook a different tale. Suddenly the
guildmaster recognized the truth of Regis's banterings with the cat. "It took
him away!" Pook roared. He rushed around the side of the chair and pushed his
face into LaValle's. "Where? Tell me!"
LaValle nearly fell from his trembling. "Not possible." He gasped. "The cat
must obey its master, the possessor."
"Regis knew the cat!" Pook cried.
"Impossible loyalties," LaValle replied, truly dumbfounded.
Pook composed himself and settled back in his chair. "Where did you get it?"
he asked LaValle.
"Entreri," the wizard replied immediately, not daring to hesitate.
Pook scratched his chin. "Entreri," he echoed. The pieces started falling
into place. Pook understood Entreri well enough to know that the assassin would
not give away so valuable an item without getting something in return. "It
belonged to one of the halfling's friends," Pook reasoned, remembering Regis's
references to the cat's 'true master.'
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| Cytat |
Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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