"Michael Jan Friedman - The Seekers and the Sword" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friedman Michael Jan)

"And Vali has resurrected Asgard as I would not have
thought possible," he said, forgetting to whom he spoke.
Vidar stared at her black stone walls, as high as those Loki
had built before Loki tore them down again. "The bastard.
From here, she looks exactly as I remembered her."

"VidarтАФlisten to me," said Eric. "Please." There was
an undercurrent of urgency in hrs voice, though Vidar did
not hear it, "They're talking about deserting...."

"So familar," said Vidar. "I can even see the tower that
was built to resemble VidiтАФmy home, my hallтАФwhere I
would be lord today if I'd stayed to help rebuild her." He
shook his head slowly in the caress of the wind. "Damn. I
wonder who's living there now?"

Eric gripped his shoulder more tightly, shaking him, but
to no avail. He was mesmerized by Asgard, it seemed.

"But it does not matter now," Vidar whispered. "It's
someone else's hall. Aye," he breathed, "someone else's."
He licked his lips, watching the seas churn around Asgard,
and reflected as if through a haze on the circuitous path
that had brought him back to this place.

It had begun in Woodstock, where he sculpted metal and
wood and stone, and sold his work to bankers' wives. There
MICHAEL JAN PREEDMAN

was some peace in that, a peace he'd traveled long and
hard to find.

Sometimes, while he wrested form from stubborn form-
lessness, he could forget the bloody work his hands had
done. Sometimes, in those moments of creation, he could
forget all the destruction. тАв.

And as far as he'd known, Asgard had forgotten him as
well.

Then came the discontent, the numbness. He blamed it
on his breakup with Alissa, but knew that it was something
elseтАФsomething that called to him out of the gray past,
reminding him that he had not always been a sculptor.

And on the heels of that numbness, the call from
ModiтАФThor's son. The need that brought Vidar to
Utgard, a world Odin had created for his amusement. The
threat of Ygg, who was bent on tearing Utgard in twoтАФ
and who could say that Midgard-Earth was not next on his