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

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 Upland Outlaws

"I'd rather have my flesh eaten than my mind, I think," Rap said. "And it was all my fault."


"Yes, it was."


"Why was it?" the impress asked. All through the discussions, she had been sitting as still as a statue, holding her sleeping child. Why was her face
so familiar? "What did you do, your Majesty?"


"I cut off the supply of magic. I can't tell you all the details now, but I went back to Faerie-" A stab of pain reminded him that sorcery did not like to
be discussed. "Never mind. I did it, and it's done." Each word of power represented a dead fairy, but almost no one except the wardens had ever
known that simple fact. It was the ultimate secret behind the workings of sorcery, and the Protocol.


Faerie ... Raspnex projected a whiff of nostalgia and a fleeting image of the riotous party in Milflor when Zinixo's votaries had celebrated their
release. They hadn't noticed Rap arrive on the island, or what he was up to-not that they could have stopped him, anyway. By the time he had joined
in the festivities, the fairies had vanished, from jail and jungle both. He had stamped out forever that ghastly farming of people, or so he hoped.


"And you can't undo it now, can you?" the dwarf said angrily. "Your stupid, blundering good intentions! Where did you put the fairies?"


"I can't even tell you. And no, I can't ever undo it. I used every scrap of power I possessed." Power he possessed no longer! "It's done now. Forever.
Unless the Gods take pity on us."


He turned away from all the shocked faces. Good intentions? Only now did he see that the fairies' suffering throughout the ages had at least helped
to stabilize life for everyone else, by buttressing the Protocol. The arrangement had been grossly unfair, but it had held some good as well as much
evil. By ending it, he had upset the balance of the world.


The one time he had tried to be a God, and he had blundered! "I don't understand!" Acopulo bleated.


"He cut off the supply of magic!" Raspnex growled. "The Protocol was set up, to prevent exactly this sort of happening! The supply of magic was
the prerogative of the warlock of the west. If any one sorcerer ever tried to build a sorcerous army and make himself paramount, West could create
an opposing army! As a last resort. That's why it's never been done before, although Ulien' came close in the War of the Five Warlocks." He
scowled, as if in pain.


Sagom made a choking noise. "A safety net!"