"Dave Duncan - A Handful Of Men 2 - Upland Outlaws" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

"It fits the facts!" he snapped, glaring.


Shandie asked for a second opinion, and the jotunn went on the offensive.


"It fits a judicious selection of the facts, Sire. As a student, Acopulo was always selective in his use of evidence, and I see he has not changed. The
last news we had of the wardens, Lith'rian was hurling his dragons at Olybino's legions. They were at each other's throats! Now we are to regard
them as allies?"


Scholarship was an uncommon calling for jotnar. Sagorn was an unusual jotunn, but not so unusual that he lacked belligerence, and now he was
obviously intent on exterminating the unfortunate imp with traditional ruthlessness. The tongue was mightier than the ax, that was all.


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 Upland Outlaws



Little Acopulo bristled. "That is your only objection?"


"It is the least of them." Sagorn sneered. "Granted that the Four often squabble, you have failed to explain why this disagreement is so much more
virulent than all others in three thousand years-so dire that it required desecration of the Rotunda. You did not explain the dwarf's prophecies and
warnings. You did not explain why King Rap has come from Krasnegar. And you have most certainly failed to explain why, after a thousand years
of extinction, a pixie should reappear now, and to his Majesty."


"Pixie? " Rap exclaimed. Shandie had met a pixie?


"A possible pixie," the imperor said, smiling at a sorcerer's surprise. "On my way, back to Hub, I broke my journey at a post inn in the Wold Hills.
An ancient crone appeared to me, but not to my companions. From my description, Doctor Sagorn believes that she may have been a pixie."


Rap shot a glance at the old rascal and saw glitters of satisfaction in the faded blue eyes. Sagorn would not have admitted how much he had been
guessing. His knowledge of pixies was probably limited to what Kadolan had told him in a conversation on board


Unvanquished, beating up the coast of Zark one blustery morning eighteen years ago-Rap himself had been down in the hold with the ship's gnome,
but eavesdropping nonetheless. Inos and her aunt had narrowly escaped being murdered in Thume, and it was odd that ... Holy


Balance!


Relying on the shielding to keep out the overweening world disaster, Rap risked a peek with premonition-yes, he was on to something. Inos had
mentioned her adventures in Thume a few times, but he had never paid much attention. How odd! He had never visited Thume on his solitary
sorcerous travels.