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

might have turned out if he hadn't.

"What is that strange jewel. Master?"

he asked. Better far that his tongue had fallen out before he asked
that fatal question.

"This Orb?" Aldur replied, holding it up for all of us to see.

"In it lies the fate of the world." It was then for the first time
that I noticed that the stone seemed to have a faint blue flicker deep
inside of it. It was, as I think I've mentioned before, polished by a
thousand years or more of our Master's touch, and it was now, as
Belzedar had so astutely noticed, more a jewel than a piece of plain,
country rock.

"How can so small an object be so important, Master?" Belzedar asked.
That's another question I wish he'd never thought of. If he'd just
been able to let it drop, none of what's happened would have happened,
and he wouldn't be in his present situation. Despite all of our
training, there are some questions better left unanswered.

Unfortunately, our Master had a habit of answering questions, and so
things came out that might better have been left buried. If they had,
I might not currently be carrying a load of guilt that I'm not really
strong enough to bear. I'd rather carry a mountain than carry what I
did to Belzedar. Garion might understand that, but I'm fairly sure
none of the rest of my savage family would. Regrets? Yes, of course I
have regrets.

I've got regrets stacked up behind me at least as far as from here to
the moon. But we don't die from regret, do we? We might squirm a
little, but we don't die.

And our Master smiled at my brother Belzedar, and the Orb grew
brighter. I seemed to see images flickering dimly within it.

"Herein lies the past," our Master told us, "and the present, and the
future, also. This is but a small part of the virtue of the Orb. With
it may man--or earth herself--be healed or destroyed. Whatsoever man
or God would do, though it be beyond even the power of the Will and the
Word, with this Orb may it come to pass."

"Truly a wondrous thing, Master," Belzedar said, looking a bit puzzled,
"but still I fail to understand. The jewel is fair, certainly, but in
fine it is yet but a stone."

"The Orb hath revealed the future unto me, my son," our Master replied
sadly.