"Chalker, Jack L - Rings 1 - Lords Of The Middle Dark" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chalker Jack L)

mountain is a part of things, that's all."
"It is not a part of things," the rebel argued. "It is unnatural but not
supernatural. I know as well as you what it is like for those in the Council.
There they live not by nature and the skill of their inner and outer selves but
rather by machines and artifices. Everyone knows this, for they must return to
us for a season every two years. This mountain is neither of god nor nature, but
of men. You are a wise man. Surely in your heart you know this."
"I know many things," the medicine man replied. "I am not saying that you are
not correct in this, but correct does not necessarily mean that you are right.
You know, too, that the Creator once punished us for our pride and subjugated us
not even to the subhumans but to demons with white faces who slaughtered the
buffalo, slaughtered the People, and contained the rest on worthless land,
condemning us to a living hell in which our very way of life was made
impossible. Most of the white demons have been carried off now to the stars, and
the rest given their own domain far across the Eastern Sea, but they left many
works of evil here. You can still stand on peaks and see where they had blasted
great roads through the mountains, and you can still go to many places and find
the remains of their once-great cities."
"Then you are saying that it is true." The words were spoken with a curious sort
of smile. "That the stories and legends of the mountain were created to keep
people away. It is in fact something created by creatures of Earth, not heaven."
"Creatures of Earth and hell," the medicine man spat. "It is a foul place. It is
perhaps the doorway to hell itself. Left alone, it does not bother us, and we do
not disturb it. What if you challenge it, and it devours you as it devoured the
few others who have gone to it? What is gained? And if you survive, and if you
let loose the hordes of evil demons that it might imprison, then you might well
bring down the wrath of the Creator upon all of us once more. Then much is
lost."
"All that you say might be true, yet I will challenge it. I will challenge it
because it is there and because I choose knowledge over cowering like some child
in a summer storm, its ignorance reinforcing its fear. It is the duty of Human
Beings to conquer fear, not be ruled by it, or we become less than the
subhumans. I respect the mountain, but I do not fear it, and there is but one
way to show that to the mountain and to the Creator who raised us above all
others in spirit. I do not accept your argument. If I do not go, then I show
fear and lose my own worth. If I go and die, then I die in honor, in an act of
courage. If I do not go because it might loose some demons upon the People, then
the People as a whole will be subject to fear. If we allow ourselves to be ruled
by fear in anything, then we are not the true Human Beings, the highest of
creation, but are instead subject to something else -- fear of the unknown. And if
we are subjected to that, then we are subjugated and deserve nothing less, for
if fear can rule us in this, it can rule us in other things as well."
The medicine man sighed. "I always knew I should have nominated you for Council
training. You have the kind of mind for it. It is too late for that now, I fear,
and too late for you. Go. Climb the mountain. Die with your honor and courage
proven. I shall lead the weeping and lamentations for you and for myself, for
erring in this way and having such a fine mind come to such a purposeless end. I
will argue no more fine points of logic with you. There is a very thin line
between stubbornness and stupidity, and I cannot shift someone back who has
crossed that line. Go."