"Eric Flint & Richard Roach - Forward the Mage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

University of Ozarae (in Exile)
 PRELUDE.




In Which We Introduce the Gentle Reader to Our Tale Through a Most Cunning
Usage of the Ancient Narrative Device of The Plunge Direct Into the Turbulence of
the Times. Taken From the Autobiography of the Notorious Scapegrace, Benvenuti
Sfondrati-Piccolomini.

Autobiography of Benvenuti Sfondrati-Piccolomini,
Episode 1: Police, Potters, Pedants and Plunderers

I arrived in the city of Goimr upon the most wretched ship imaginable. The CSS Lucre, it was
called, a name which was as inappropriate as possible. The CSS Pigsty would have served
better; the Shipwreck-in-the-Making, ideal.
Yet, upon my first glimpse of Goimr, I was almost sorry to disembark. The sight which
greeted my eyes was even more disheartening than the ship. I had expected, without really
giving it much thought, to find GoimrтАЩs harbor a smaller version of my native OzarтАЩs great
port, the Horn of Surfeit. At the very least, I should have thought GoimrтАФwhich is, after all,
the chief port of southeastern GrotumтАФto be a match for any of the smaller harbors of the
Philistine at which my ship had stopped on the voyage from Ozar.
Not so. I was encountering my first taste of that reality which has given rise, throughout
Grotum, to the expression тАЬgrubby as Goimr.тАЭ Upon the oily, sluggish waters of the harbor
bobbed a variety of vessels, which seemed to compete with each other in their disrepair and
desuetude, not to mention their antiquity and obsolescence. Numerous dilapidated
warehouses dotted the quays, most of them boarded up, if not burnt and gutted. Everything
was covered with a deep layer of grime. Roofs sagged, doors were unhinged, steps were
cracked and broken. The very stones of the quays seemed corroded by some foul reagent.
The sole exception to the general miasma of decay was the building in front of which my
ship was docked. The building was gigantic, stretching a full two hundred yards along the
center of GoimrтАЩs waterfront. Above it, facing the waterfront, rested a huge sign announcing
to the world:

GREAT GROTUM NORTHERN, EASTERN,
SOUTHERN, WESTERN,
CENTRAL AND ENVIRONS EXPRESS
AND TRAVEL COMPANY
(a subsidiary of THE CONSORTIUM)
 тАЬAt least thereтАЩs a trace of Ozarine energy in this miserable place,тАЭ I muttered to myself,
descending the gangway. And indeed, the Consortium buildingтАФthough it shared the
general aura of squalorтАФwas bustling with activity. Numerous barges, skiffs, scows and hoys
plied the waters adjacent, bringing cargoes to and from the several ships moored nearby. A
constant bustle of men and wagons carrying goods, supplies or passengers swarmed about
the quayside in front of the building.
The moment I stepped ashore, I was delivered into this seething frenzy of commercial and
maritime activity. Wending my slow way past oxen teams drawing huge loads, dodging
gangs of stevedores, I left the docks and entered the relative calm of the building. After some
inquiries, I eventually made my way out of the labyrinthine edifice and into the passenger