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

Nedra and Chaldan will encircle him from the west, and Belar will come
at him from the north. We will lay waste his Angaraks until he returns
the Orb. Though it rends my heart, it must be so. I will set tasks
for each of thee that thou must accomplish in mine absence."

"Absence, Master?" Belzedar asked.

"I must go even unto Prolgu to consult with UL. The Destinies that
drive us all are known, though imperfectly, to him. He will provide
guidance for us, that we do not overstep certain limits in our war upon
our brother."

The wolf, quite unnoticed, had gone to him and laid her head in his
lap. As he spoke to us, he absently--or so I thought at the
time--stroked her with an oddly affectionate hand. I knew it was
improbable, but I got the strong impression that they somehow already
knew each other.

CHAPTER SIX

Our Master was a long time at Prolgu, but we had more than enough to
keep us occupied, and I'm certain the peoples of the other Gods were
just as busy. With the possible exception of the Alorns and the
Arends, war was an alien concept to most of the rest of mankind, and
even those belligerent people were not very good at the kind of
organization necessary to build an army. By and large, the world had
been peaceful, and such fights as occasionally broke out tended to
involve just a few men pounding on each other with assorted weapons
that weren't really very sophisticated. Fatalities occurred, of
course, but I like to think they were accidental most of the time.

This time was obviously going to be different. Whole races were going
to be thrown at each other, and nothing had prepared us for that.

We relied rather heavily on Belsambar's knowledge of the Angaraks in
the early stages of our planning. That elevated opinion of themselves
which Torak had instilled in his people had made them aloof and
secretive, and strangers or members of other races were not welcome in
their cities. To emphasize that, Angaraks had traditionally walled in
their towns. It was not so much that they anticipated war--although
Torak himself probably did--but rather that they seemed to feel the
need for some visible sign that they were separate from and superior to
the rest of mankind.

Beldin sat scowling at the floor after Belsambar had described the wall
surrounding the city where he'd been born over a thousand years
before.

"Maybe they've discontinued the practice," he growled.