"Jim Farris - Mage 4 - The Wench of Woe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farris Jim)

restless sea. The Bright Sea, as it was called, was hardly bright today. Ominous clouds loomed on the
horizon to the east - it seemed yet another spring squall was headed towards the green, forested lands of
Vilandia.




The old man had never been a sailor, though like most Vilandians, he was still familiar with the sea.
The sea was, in truth, the life's blood of their nation, and the Vilandian navy was renowned as the most
powerful and most advanced navy in all the world. Sleek fishing vessels like swift greyhounds that plied
the coastal waters of Vilandia, harvesting the seemingly endless bounty of the sea... Vast warships with
hulls of stout oak that prowled enemy waters, war-bred mastiffs that rained a hail of ballista-bolts and
catapult-stones upon enemy fortifications... No, he was not unfamiliar with the sea. Indeed, the
Vilandians worshipped the sea as a goddess - a strange, mysterious goddess who could be immensely
kind one moment, and immensely cruel the next. And now, gazing out over the sea at the dark clouds
gathering to the east, the old man knew that the sea might soon once again be immensely cruel to a small
town named Woe.




But no, the Old Man had never been a sailor. His life had been spent as the village master, the leader
of the village. It was not an elected position, of course. His father had been the village master before him,
and his father before that, for eight generations. His son would have been the next village master...




The old man sighed, thinking about his son. The Goddess could be cruel at times, indeed. Cruel
enough that ten generations before, on the site of a tragic shipwreck, his little village had been founded,
and named Woe. But, perhaps it was as the priests said - all men were mortal, and sinned. All men
deserved punishment for their sins, and the Goddess punished sinners in her own time, in her own way...
And usually when they least expected it.
 The sound of hoof-beats over the surf caught the old man's ear, and he turned his head to look down
the beach. There, in the distance, a vision appeared to his age-dimmed eyes which caused his heart to
catch in his throat.




A flame-haired woman, her fiery tresses streaming behind her as she galloped along astride a black
steed. Yet, as they drew closer, the old man could see the hellish fires of the steed's glowing red eyes, the
wisps of black smoke which escaped it's nostrils as it galloped, and the cold fury upon the woman's
face.




Yes... The Goddess punished sinners in her own time, and her own way... And today, it seemed his
time for punishment was finally due.