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

"You healed me," he said one day, "and in return I am to
follow you to the ends of all the worlds and I am to serve
you and bring you favour and fortune."

When they were put on two days' leave and Sech was left
behind with the Company, Bligh felt a tremendous sensation of
relief.

When Madeleine saw Bligh with Salas Benjennery, she rushed
out under the bar and hugged them both. Bligh wondered
bitterly whether she would have kept her distance if they had
not already been to the public baths.

"We're serving together in the 16th," said Benjennery later,
as they perched on an old stone trough by the town's Assembly
House, enjoying the unseasonal warmth of the evening. "How do
you cope here, Madeleine? This place is dangerous for a young
woman living alone ... anything could happen. You must be
careful."

Madeleine glanced at Bligh and said, "I've been here for some
time now. I can defend myself." Bligh sensed that there was
something wrong, but when he had asked earlier, she would
only say, "Later, love. It doesn't matter."

Now, she said to Benjennery, "You're quiet. You were always
the romantic one. Back at the school you would tell us tales
of magic and wonder. Has all that gone now?"

Benjennery shook his head sadly. "I'm no story-teller," he
explained to Bligh. "I am a historian. I would collect
anecdotes from the old people of Dona-Jez. In some instances
the stories had been passed down for generations: they would
tell of healers who could cure a deadly illness with the
touch of a hand, of seers who plotted the course of
dynasties. Even my parents' generation possessed a greater
sense of the wonderful than we do today. There's no room for
magic in a modern life, there's no room for the soul."

Bligh thought of the UPP posters and their adoption and
corruption of traditional religious symbols. Across the
street a queue had formed at a church. He nodded towards it
and said, "The people don't seem to agree."

"Salas is right," said Madeleine, and Bligh felt chastised.
"Magic is being pushed aside. People no longer believe in
miracles, they want motor wagons and radios and cinema
pictures."

"It is a modern, secular world," said Benjennery. "And is it