"Eddings, David - Malloreon 01 - Guardians Of The West" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

Bull-neck, and Algar Fleet-foot. To Riva Iron-grip and to his line he gave the Orb
of Aldur and sent him to the Isle of the Winds.
Belar, God of the Alorns, sent down two stars, and from them Riva forged a mighty
sword and placed the Orb on its pommel. And he hung the sword on the wall of the
throne room of the Citadel, where it might ever guard the West from Torak.
When Belgarath returned to his home, he discovered that his wife, Poledra, had borne
him twin daughters, but then had passed away. In heartsick sorrow, he named his
daughters Polgara and Beldaran. And when they were of age, he sent Beldaran to Riva
Iron-grip to be his wife and mother of the Rivan line. But Polgara he kept with him
and instructed in the arts of sorcery.
In rage at the loss of the Orb, Torak destroyed the City of Night and divided the
Angaraks. The Murgos, the Nadraks, and the Thulls he sent to dwell in the wastelands
along the western shores of the Sea of the East. The Malloreans he kept to subdue
all of the continent on which they dwelt.
Over all, he set his Grolim priests to watch, to scourge any who faltered, and to
offer human sacrifices to him.
Many centuries passed. Then Zedar the Apostate, who served Torak, conspired with
Salmissra, Queen of the snake-people, to send emissaries to the Isle of the Winds to
slay Gorek, Riva's descendant, and all his family. This was done, though some
claimed that a lone child escaped; but none could say for certain.
Emboldened by the death of the guardian of the Orb, Torak gathered his host and
invaded the West, planning to enslave the peoples and regain the Orb. At Vo Mimbre
on the plains of Arendia, the hordes of Angaraks met the armies of the West in
dreadful slaughter. And there Brand the Rivan Warder, bearing the Orb upon his
shield, met Torak in single combat and struck down the maimed God. The Angaraks,
seeing that, were disheartened and they were overthrown and destroyed. But at night,
as the Kings of the West celebrated, Zedar the Apostate took the body of Torak and
spirited it away. Then the High Priest of the Ulgos, named Gorim as all such High
Priests had been, revealed that Torak had not been killed, but bound in slumber
until a king of the line of Riva sat once more on the throne in the Hall of the
Rivan King.
The Kings of the West believed that meant forever, for it was held that the line of
Riva had perished utterly. But Belgarath and his daughter Polgara knew better. For a
child had escaped the slaughter of Gorek's family, and they had concealed him and
his descendants in obscurity for generations.
But ancient prophecies revealed to them that the time for the return of the Rivan
King was not yet come.
Many more centuries passed. Then, in a nameless city on the far side of the world,
Zedar the Apostate came upon an innocent child and resolved to take the child and go
secretly with him to the Isle of the Winds. There he hoped that the innocence of the
child might enable that child to take the Orb of Aldur from the pommel of the sword
of the Rivan King. It occurred as he wished, and Zedar fled with the child and the
Orb toward the East.
Polgara the Sorceress had been living with a young boy, who called her Aunt Pol, in
obscurity on a farm in Sendaria.
This boy was Garion, the orphaned last descendant of the Rivan line, but he was
unaware of his parentage.
When Belgarath learned of the theft of the Orb, he hastened to Sendaria to urge his
daughter to join him in the search for Zedar and the Orb. Polgara insisted that the
boy must accompany them on the quest, so Garion accompanied his Aunt Pol and