"Books - David Eddings - Polgara the Sorceress" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

It was warm and dark, and we floated in absolute contentment,
listening to the sound of mother's heart and the rush of her blood
through her veins as her body nourished us. That's my first memory
- that and mother's thought gently saying to us, 'Wake up.'
We've made no secret of mother's origins. What isn't widely
known is the fact that the Master summoned her, just as he
summoned all the rest of us. She's as much Aldur's disciple as any of
us are. We all serve him in our own peculiar ways. Mother, however,
was not born human, and she perceived rather early in her
pregnancy that Beldaran and I had none of those instincts that are inborn
in wolves. I've since learned that this caused her much concern, and
she consulted with the Master at some length about it, and her
suggested solution was eminently practical. Since beldaran and I
had no instincts, mother proposed to the Master that she might
begin our education while we were still enwombed. I think her
suggestion might have startled Aldur, but he quickly saw its virtue.
And so it was that mother took steps to make certain that my sister
and I had certain necessary information - even before we were born.
During the course of a normal human pregnancy, the unborn lives
in a world consisting entirely of physical sensation. Beldaran and I,
however, were gently guided somewhat further. My father rather
arrogantly states that he began my education after Beldaran's
wedding, but that's hardly accurate. Did he really think that I was a
vegetable before that? My education - and Beldaran's began before
we ever saw the light of day.
Father's approach to education is disputational. As first disciple,
he'd been obliged to oversee the early education of my various
uncles. He forced them to think and to argue as a means of guiding
them along the thorny path to independent thought - although he
sometimes carried it to extremes. Mother was born wolf, and her
approach is more elemental. Wolves are pack-animals, and they
don't think independently. Mother simply told Beldaran and me,
'This is the way it is. This is the way it always has been, and always
will be.' Father teaches you to question; mother teaches you to
accept. It's an interesting variation.
At first, Beldaran and I were identical twins and as close as that
term implies. When mother's thought woke us, however, she rather
carefully began to separate us. I received certain instruction that
Beldaran didn't, and she received lessons that I didn't. I think I felt
that wrench more keenly than Beldaran did. She knew her purpose;
I spent years groping for mine.
The separation was very painful for me. I seem to remember
reaching out to my sister and saying to her in our own private
language, 'You're so far away now.' Actually, of course, she wasn't.
We were both still confined in that small, warm place beneath
mother's heart, but always before our minds had been linked, and
now they were inexorably moving apart. If you think about it a bit,
I'm sure you'll understand.
After we awoke, mother's thought was with us continually. The
sound of it was as warm and comforting as the place where we floated,