"David Eddings - Malloreon 2 King of the Murgos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

of the other Alorn monarchs, he moved first against the shipyards at
Jarviksholm to prevent the threat of a hostile fleet in the Sea of
the Winds. His attack was quick and savage. Jarviksholm was razed to
the ground, and the half-built fleet was burned before a single keel
touched water.

But victory turned to ashes when a message from Riva reached him. His
infant son had been abducted.

Belgarion, Belgarath, and Polgara turned themselves into

DAVID EDDINGS 5

birds by sorcery and flew back to Riva in a single day. The city of
Riva had already been searched house by house. But with the aid of
the Orb, Belgarion was able to follow the trail of the abductors to
the west coast of the Isle. There they came upon a band of Cherek
cultists and fell upon them. One survived, and Polgara forced him to
speak. He declared that the child had been stolen on the orders of
Ulfgar, leader of the Bear-cult, whose headquarters were at Rheon in
eastern Drasnia. Before Polgara could wrest further information from
him, however, the cultist leaped from the top of the cliff upon which
they stood and dashed himself to death on the rocks below.
Now the war turned to Rheon. Belgarion found his troops badly
outnumbered and an ambush awaiting his advance toward the city. He
was facing defeat when Prince Kheldar arrived with a force of Nadrak
mercenaries to turn the tide of battle. Reinforced by the Nadraks,
the Rivans besieged the city of Rheon.

Belgarion and Durnik combined their wills to weaken the wails of the
city until the siege engines of Baron Mandorallen could bring them
down. The Rivans and Nadraks poured into the city, led by Belgarion.
The battle inside was savage, but the cultists were driven back and
most of them were slaughtered. Then Belgarion and Durnik captured the
cult leader, Ulfgar.

Though Belgarion had already learned that his son was not within the
city, he hoped that close questioning might drag the child's
whereabouts from Ulfgar. The cult leader stubbornly refused to
answer; then, surprisingly, Errand drew the information directly from
Ulfgar's mind.

While it became clear that Ulfgar had been responsible for the
attempt on Ce'Nedra's life, he had played no part in the theft of the
child. Indeed, his chief goal had been the death of Beigarion's son,
preferably before its birth. He obviously knew nothing of the
abduction, which did not at all suit his purpose.

Then the sorcerer Beldin joined them. He quickly recognized Ulfgar as
Harakan, an underling of Torak's last living disciple Urvon. Harakan