"02 - An Excess of Enchantments" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner Craig Shaw)

An Excess Of Enchantments
Verse the Second in The Ballad of Wuntvor
Craig Shaw Gardner

ONE

"Things are not always what they seem."

--Words (which some expected to be his

last) spoken by Ebenezum, greatest

wizard of the Western Kingdoms, when he

was discovered in close and personal

consultation with Queen Vivazia of

Humboldt by the queen's husband, King

Snerdlot the Vengeful. Unfortunately,

the following statements made by the

king to his elite assassin guards, as

well as the reply uttered by the wizard

as he climbed down the battlements of

Humboldt castle in his nightshirt,

have been lost to posterity.

Once upon a time, in a land very, very far away, there traveled a young lad who wanted to see the world. Now this lad's name was Wuntvor, and he wished to be an adventurer and visit that distant place from which every morning came the sun. As he grew toward manhood, he would look out his bedroom window

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each dawn as he awoke, and watch the sun rise. He began to think of it as his friend, and he imagined the blazing orb beckoned to him, calling Wuntvor to come and see its home.

So it was that Wuntvor left his native land and journeyed east. He walked for many days, until the days turned into weeks, but Wuntvor did not despair, for he was young and his heart was pure. The weeks became months, and still Wuntvor traveled on, for, although the sun seemed no closer than when he started, he knew that if he but tried hard enough and long enough, he would reach his goal.

Still, the way was long and tiring, with hills and mountains to climb and rivers and oceans to cross. Even one as young and pure of heart as Wuntvor found himself doubting the wisdom of his journey from time to time. So it was on a particular evening, when the sun had journeyed all the way from its home in the east to its resting place in the west. Wuntvor was weary from his day's march, and decided to camp in a secluded glen by the side of a babbling brook. He spread out his bedroll and ate a meagre meal of bread and cheese, listening to the night-birds overhead.

"Alas," he said at last, more to himself than to the birds. "Will I never find the home of the sun?"

And a voice answered him: