"01 - Wizard's Bane (b)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cook Rick)

"He traded his daughter to the elves?"
"Life in the Wild Wood is hard for those who have little magic." She smiled a little bitterly. "Call it a 'fostering.' That puts a better face upon it."
"What did they want with her?"
"As the little one said. She is a nursemaid to an elven infant." Moira's face softened. "Elves seldom have young. That must have been an event beneath the Elf Hill."
"Wait a minute," Wiz protested. "She wasn't . . . ah, I mean she wasn't married when she went, was she?"
"You mean was she unspoiled? Probably. Elves prefer virgin's milk when they can get it."
"But how . . . ? Oh, magic. Never mind."
They walked on a bit in silence. "What a fate. Locked under a hill forever."
"It has its compensations. The elves are kind enough in their unhuman fashion. They do not mistreat their servants."
"But to spend your whole life like that!"
"No," Moira said. "Time passes oddly under the hill. Someday, when the elf child needs her no longer, she will emerge as young as when she went in." She sobered. "Of course that stead will likely long be dust by then and there will be none who know her. That is the cruelest fate."
"Yeah," Wiz said, thinking of the graves. "I'm not sure living in safety is worth what it cost Lothar."
"The price has only been partly paid." Moira made a face. "Wait. As the children grow up they will go one by one to drudge for the elves. Plague, murrain, raids by trolls or others. There will always be another need and Lothar will always return to the elf hill to seek aid."
Wiz was shocked. "Doesn't Lothar realize that?"
"Not he," she said contemptuously. "I have seen his kind before. He hopes long and hard that something will happen. Like most mortals he lives for today and puts off the reckoning as long as he may." She increased her pace.
"It is an old, old story, Sparrow. As farms get smaller and the soil wears out within the Fringe there have always been those who sought to go beyond it to carve out new homes. But the Wild Wood is not for mortals. It is a place full of Magic, given to others, and mortals violate it at their peril."
"Well, why not? My whole country was a howling wilderness once and we settled it."
"Because the magic in the Wild Wood is too strong, Sparrow. Within the Fringe the hedge witches and other orders can stand between the World's magic and people. Beyond the Fringe there is too much powerful magic. If we were to make the attempt we would only be swept away and our people with us. Believe me Sparrow, it has been tried and it has never worked. The Fringe is this limit of lands where mortals can live."
"Umm," said Wiz again and shifted his pack.
"What did Lothar mean when he said his grandfather knew this place?" he said after they had walked a bit more.
Moira snorted. "He was probably making it up. I doubt his grandfather ever came within a weeks journey of that stead."
"But men did live in the Wild Wood once, didn't they?"
"Parts of it, yes."
"Why did they leave?"
"Because they were fools like that man," Moira snapped. "Because they went where they should not and paid the penalty for it! Now save your breath for walking." She lengthened her stride and left him staring at her back.
They're being pushed back, Wiz thought as he struggled to keep up with the hedge witch. This whole area was inhabited once and the people have been forced out. The Wild Wood was creeping into the Fringe like the African desert creeps south in drought. And the results were the same. The people either moved or died.
Would the rains ever come to turn back the Wild Wood? Wiz wondered. Moira's reaction hinted she didn't think so. When magic became too strong people could no longer co-exist with it and they had to leave. The part of the world where humans could live was shrinking under the pressure of magic.
Wiz shook his head. All his life he had been taught that wilderness needed protection from encroaching humans. Here the humans were the ones who needed protecting.
Wiz wondered if the trolls, elves and other magical creatures would establish preserves for humans. Somehow he didn't think so.
а



Five
Night Flight
"Have you found them then?" The balefire nimbus played about Toth-Set-Ra as he hunched in his high-backed chair.
Atros grinned. "We know roughly where they are. We have only to summon our creatures for the final search." He shook his great shaggy head. "We have been closing in on them for the last three days. They evaded our ambush at the Forest Gate and fought their way through to the Wild Wood. Then they camped for the night within the ruins of the Rose Palace of Ali Suliman," (while the search swept past them, Atros did not add). "We lost them somewhat in the next day's rain, but we have them generally located."
"How have they avoided you for so long?"
Atros shrugged. "Bal-SimbaЧblast his eyesЧis a clever foe. His Watchers have been working hard to muddy our Sight. The whole of the North is covered with blanking and false trails."
He hesitated. "There is another thing. The wizard has a most pussiant cloaking spell. We cannot find the least trace of his magic anywhere in the North."
"Indeed?" croaked Toth-Set-Ra. "Oh indeed? And the hedge witch?"
"That is the strangest thing of all. The hedge witch discarded most of her magical apparatus early on. Some trolls found parts of her magic kit strewn about." He neglected to mention that the trolls were sleeping off a feast and had not reported their finds for three days. That had cost the troll father his head. "Apparently the hedge witch is relying on the other one to protect her."
Toth-Set-Ra rubbed the line of his cheekbone with a leathery forefinger. "Strange," he agreed. "Either this one is a most powerful wizard or she is a most trusting witch."
"I would suggest he is a powerful wizard, Dread Master. Judging from their success at eluding us."
"But you have found them?"
"We have them penned in a small part of the forest. They are somewhat to the west of the elf duke's hold."
"But you have found them?" Toth-Set-Ra pressed.
Atros smiled. "Tonight, Lord. Since we cannot locate them by magic, we must search by eye and ear. I am flooding the area with our creatures and allies. At night they are at their most powerful." His smile grew broader. "Besides what weary travellers can refrain from lighting a fire to cook their dinner and warm their bones? And a fire in the Wild Wood can be seen for a long way away."
Toth-Set-Ra looked unimpressed. "And if our wizard chooses to use magic?"
"Our black robes will be watching, ready to pounce."