"David Eddings - Belgariad 3 Magicians Gambit" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

less time studying The Book of Ulgo and more searching through moldy old scrolls
of prophecy. But a certain oddity might be expected of one who had gone forth
from the caverns of UL into the world of other peoples.
Then a strange old man appeared before the entrance to the caverns, demanding to
speak with the Gorim. And such was the power of his voice that the Gorim was
summoned. Then, for the first time since the people had sought safety in the
caverns, one who was not of the people of UL was admitted. The Gorim took the
stranger into his chambers and remained closeted with him for days. And
thereafter, the strange man with the white beard and tattered clothing appeared
at long intervals and was welcomed by the Gorim.
It was even reported once by a young boy that there was a great gray wolf with
the Gorim. But that was probably only some dream brought on by sickness, though
the boy refused to recant.
The people adjusted and accepted the strangeness of their Gorim. And the years
passed, and the people gave thanks to their God, knowing that they were the
chosen people of the Great God UL.



Part One
MARAGOR




Chapter One
HER IMPERIAL HIGHNESS, Princess Ce'Nedra, jewel of the House of Borune and the
loveliest flower of the Tolnedran Empire, sat cross-legged on a sea chest in the
oak-beamed cabin beneath the stern of Captain Greldik's ship, nibbling
thoughtfully on the end of a tendril of her coppery hair as she watched the Lady
Polgara attend to the broken arm of Belgarath the Sorcerer. The princess wore a
short, pale-green Dryad tunic, and there was a smudge of ash on one of her
cheeks. On the deck above she could hear the measured beat of the drum that
paced the oar strokes of Greldik's sailors as they rowed upstream from the
ash-choked city of Sthiss Tor.
It was all absolutely dreadful, she decided. What had begun as merely another
move in the interminable game of authority and rebellion against it that she had
been playing with her father, the Emperor, for as long as she could remember had
suddenly turned deadly serious. She had never really intended for things to go
this far when she and Master Jeebers had crept from the Imperial Palace in Tol
Honeth that night so many weeks ago. Jeebers had soon deserted her - he had been
no more than a temporary convenience, anyway - and now she was caught up with
this strange group of grim-faced people from the north in a quest she could not
even understand. The Lady Polgara, whose very name sent a chill through the
princess, had rather bluntly informed her in the Wood of the Dryads that the
game was over and that no evasion, wheedling, or coaxing would alter the fact
that she, Princess Ce'Nedra, would stand in the Hall of the Rivan King on her
sixteenth birthday - in chains if necessary. Ce'Nedra knew with absolute
certainty that Lady Polgara had meant exactly that, and she had a momentary
vision of being dragged, clanking and rattling in her chains, to stand in total