"part4" - читать интересную книгу автора (Keith Brooke - Lord of Stone)

taught at the school with her, before the revolution. "I am
glad she has found someone other than Hammad Fulke," he said.
"Fulke was healer to the patricians, he visited the Citadel
often. He was on the other side."

Bligh wished he could just forget about Madeleine's former
lover.

"No, Friend," said another, Alyk Ammar. "He gave it all up
when we took Dona-Jez. Even a - " He was interrupted by a
sudden torrent of abuse from another room. "You have seen our
good Lord?" he said to Bligh.

Bligh shook his head and so the two led him out into the
corridor and down to the door of another room. It opened as
they approached and a soldier backed out, yelling at someone
within. "I told him he's being moved out tonight," the
soldier said, turning to Benjennery. "He didn't like it."

"What's wrong with him?" asked Bligh.

Benjennery grunted. "The mental fracture of our times," he
said. "He hears voices in his head. He claims that the Lord
of Stone, or sometimes the Lords of Soul or Water, are
pushing Their way into his head. 'Out of the mayhem the Lords
will arise, riding the bodies of innocents, leading mankind
to a new Creation.'" Bligh recognised the quote from the
Elementalist Book of the World. "He was always simple,"
Benjennery continued, "but he could at least fire a rifle and
serve the cause. He has been this way since last week. Even
when he's not violent he's a burden."

Bligh pushed open the door and went inside the room. He had
expected a man his own size, with protruding jaw and bulging
eyes - the traditional jibbering fool. Instead, a small man
sat on a window ledge, peering out through the gap between
the wooden shutters. His hair was straight and unevenly cut,
his back slightly hunched. He looked incapable of aggression.

"Hello," said Bligh tentatively. The man turned and Bligh
realised that he was a mere boy, perhaps fifteen years old.
His face was marred by eruptions of acne and one eye was
partly closed and swollen. "I'm new here."

"I'm not," said the boy, staring without embarrassment at
Bligh.

"What's your name?"

"Gaspar Sech."