"David Drake - The General 7 - The Reformer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

An hour later he was sweating. "I . . . understand, I think," he muttered, and
looked up at the starry sky.
Other worlds, whole worlds attendant on the stars! The stars are suns! It was
more radical than even the speculations of the ancient Wisdom Lovers, the ones
who'd spent their time trying to measure the sun or the shape of the earth,
before modern philosophy turned to questions of language and virtue. The scale
of time involved staggered him; the vision of men coming to this world of
Hafardine in great ships of the aether, falling out among themselves, tumbling
down into savagery after wars fought with weapons that had eerie parallels to
the most ancient legends.
"Why?" he went on. "Why me?"
Because, lad, you're a man who wants to find out the truth of things, Raj's
voice said. This world has gotten itself on a wrong road, and we need a man to
set it right. So that, in due time, Hafardine may take its place within the
Federation of Man.
Adrian gave a shaky laugh. "Me, a world-bestrider like Nethan the Great?" he
said. "You should have picked my brother Esmond; he's the warrior in our family,
the one who burns to bring back the days of the Emerald League."
not a conqueror, the slow, heavy voice of the . . . machine? continued: a
teacher. although elements of collective violence may well be necessary to
disturb the established order on this world.
"What's wrong with the established order?" he said, curiously. "Apart from those
vulgarian bumpkins from the south ruling the Emerald lands, that is."
observe:
The world vanished, as it had in the High City by the temple of the Maiden.
Again he saw Hafardine as it had been just after the fall of the Federation's
machine civilization. Little villages of farmers scattered through the valleys
and plains of the figure-eight-shaped main continent and along the coasts of the
islands; bands of hunters in the vast forests of the mountains and the
southlands. Some of the villages grew. He gasped as he recognized the great
cities of the Emeralds in their earliest days, their rise to greatness, the long
struggle with the Lords of the Isles and the founding of the Emerald League. His
heart beat faster as he saw Solinga in the days of her glory, as the deathless
beauty of the High City rose from the dreams and hands of men. Then the long,
terrible civil wars, city against city, the League against the Alliance.
Solinga's defeat that solved nothing, and then the Confederation's armies moving
in from the south.
observe. the world as it now exists.
A view from above, first. The Confederacy's wall across the narrow waist of the
continent, separating the barbarian southlands from the land of cities and law
to the north. The estates of the Confederacy's nobles expanding across valley
and plain; Vanbert growing from a straggling shepherd's camp to a city far
vaster than any in the Emerald lands. He could sense years passing.
the maximum-probability result of a continuation of present trends.
Images . . .
. . . armies clashed, both sides in the armor and equipment of the Confederacy.
Behind them a city burned . . .
. . . a view down a street. It was the buzzing heat of noon, and nothing moved;
a fine broad paved street, arrow-straight, obviously in the Confederacy's
heartlands. A body lay in one gutter, the exposed skin purple and swollen. Flies