"Alan Dean Foster - Catechist 2 - Into The Thinking Kingdom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

air in the room shuddered. тАЬIтАЩm going out today. See to the preparations.тАЭ

The soldier of soldiers nodded once. тАЬImmediately, Lord.тАЭ He turned to comply.

тАЬOh, and Peregriff?тАЭ

тАЬYes, Lord?тАЭ

тАЬHow do you sleep lately?тАЭ

The soldier considered carefully before replying. тАЬReasonably well, Lord.тАЭ

тАЬI prefer that you did not. My misery might benefit from company.тАЭ

тАЬCertainly, Lord. I will begin by not sleeping well tonight.тАЭ

Behind the helmet, Hymneth smiled contentedly. тАЬGood. I can always count on you to make me feel
better, Peregriff.тАЭ

тАЬThat is my service, Lord.тАЭ The soldier departed to make ready his masterтАЩs means for going out among
his people.

Hymneth took pleasure in a leisurely descent from the heights of the fortress, using the stairs.
Sometimes he would descend on a pillar of fire, or a chute of polished silver. It was good to keep in
practice. But the body also needed exercise, he knew.

As he descended, he passed many hallways and side passages. Attendants and servants and guards
stopped whatever they were doing to acknowledge his presence. Most smiled; a few did not. Serveral
noted the presence of the noisome, coagulated black vapors that tagged along at their masterтАЩs heels, and
they trembled. Passing one particular portal that led to a separate tower, he paused to look upward.
Thewoman was up there, secluded in the small paradise he had made for her. A word from her would
have seen him on his way exalted. That was not to be, he knew. Not yet. But he had measureless
reserves of confidence, and more patience than even those closest to him suspected. The words would
come, and the smiles, and the embraces. All in good time, of which he had a fullness.

He could have forced her. A few words, a pinch of powders, a few drops of potion in her evening wine
and her resistance would be forgotten, as frail and fractured as certain tortured tracts of land to the east.
But that would be a subjugation, not a triumph. Having everything, he wanted more. Mere bodies
equally magnificent he could acquire with gold or spell. A heart was a much more difficult thing to win.
He sought a covenant, not a conquest.



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 Into the Thinking Kingdoms: Journeys of the Catechist, Book 2

With a last look of longing at the portal, he resumed his descent. Passing through the grand hall with its
imposing pendent banners of purple and crimson, its mounted heads of sabertooths and dragons, arctic
bears and tropical thylacines, he turned left just before the imposing entryway and made his way to the