"Books - David Eddings - Belgarath the Sorcerer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

finish up my tower so that I wouldn't have it hanging over my head
nagging at me. Besides, Belmakor's tower was almost finished, and I
was first disciple, after all. I didn't think it would really be
proper for me to let him outstrip me. We sometimes do things for the
most childish of reasons, don't we?

Since my brothers and I had virtually denuded the Vale of rocks, I went
up to the edge of the forest lying to the north in search of building
materials. I was poking around among the trees looking for a
stream-bed or an outcropping of stone when I suddenly felt a baleful
stare boring into the back of my neck. That's an uncomfortable feeling
that's always irritated me for some reason.

"You might as well come out," I said.

"I know you're there."

"Don't try anything," an awful voice growled at me from a nearby
thicket.

"I'll rip you to pieces if you do."

Now that's what I call an unpromising start.

"Don't be an idiot," I replied.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

That evoked the ugliest laugh I've ever heard.

"You?" the voice said scornfully.

"You? Hurt we?" And then the bushes parted and the most hideous
creature I've ever seen emerged. He was grotesquely deformed, with a
huge hump on his back; gnarled, dwarfed legs; and long, twisted arms.
This combination made it possible--even convenient--for him to go on
all fours like a gorilla. His face was monumentally ugly, his hair and
beard were matted, he was unbelievably filthy, and he was partially
dressed in a ratty-looking fur of some kind.

"Enjoying the view?" he demanded harshly.

"You're not so pretty yourself, you know."

"You startled me, that's all," I replied, trying to be civil.

"Have you seen an old man in a rickety, broken-down cart around here
anywhere?" the creature demanded.

"He told me he'd meet me here."