"Brooks - Heritage 3 - The Elf Queen of Shannara" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brooks Terry)

had come to her and told her of the dreams? Weeks? But how
many? She had lost count. The old man had known of the
dreams and challenged her to discover for herself the truth be-
hind them. She had decided to accept his challenge, to go to
the Hadeshorn in the Valley of Shale and meet with the shade
of Allanon. Why shouldn't she? Perhaps she would learn some-
thing of where she had come from, of the parents she had never
known, or of her history.
Odd. Until the old man had appeared, she had been disin-
terested in her lineage. She had persuaded herself that it didn't
matter. But something in the way he spoke to her, in the words
he used-something-had changed her.
She reached up to finger the leather bag about her neck self-
consciously, feeling the hard outline of the painted rocks, the
play Elfstones, her only link to the past. Where did they come
from? Why had they been given to her?
Elven features, Ohmsford blood, and Rover heart and skills-
they all belonged to her. But how had she come by them?
Who was she?
She hadn't found out at the Hadeshorn. Allanon had come
as promised, dark and forbidding even in death. But he had told
her nothing. Instead, he had given her a charge-had given each
of them a charge, the children of Shannara, as he called them,
Par and Walker and herself. But hers? Well. She shook her head
at the memory. She was to go in search of the Elves, to find
them and bring them back into the world of men. The Elves,
who hadn't been seen by anyone in over a hundred years, who
were believed by most never even to have existed, and who
were presumed a child's faerie tale-she was to find them.
She had not planned to look at first, disturbed by what she
had heard and how it had made her feel, unwilling to become
involved, or to risk herself for something she did not understand
or care about. She had left the others and with Garth once again
her only companion had gone back into the Westland. She had
thought to resume her life as a Rover. The Shadowen were not
her concern. The problems of the races were not her own. But
the Druid's admonition had stayed with her, and almost without
realizing it she had begun her search after all. It had started with
a few questions, asked here and there. Had anyone heard if there
reallY were any Elves? Had anyone ever seen one? Did anyone
know where they might be found? They were questions that
were asked lightly at first, self-consciously, but with growing
curiositY as time wore on, then almost an urgency.
What if Allanon were right? What if the Elves were still out
there somewhere? What if they alone possessed whatever was
necessary to overcome the Shadowen plague?
But the answers to her questions had all been the same. No
one knew anything of the Elves. No one cared to know.
And then someone had begun following them-someone or
something-their shadow as they came to call it, a thing clever