"Craig Shaw Gardner - Ebenezum 01 - A Malady of Magicks" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner Craig Shaw)

A Malady of Magicks
Book I of the Ebenezium
Craig Shaw Gardner
CONTENTS
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN



ONE

тАЬ тАШA wizard is only as good as his spells,тАЩ people will often say. It is telling, however, that this
statement is only made by people who have never been wizards themselves.
Those of us who have chosen to pursue a sorcerous career know that a knowledge of spells is
only one small facet of the successful magician. Equally vital are a quick wit, a soothing tongue,
and, perhaps most important, a thorough knowledge of back alleys, underground passageways,
and particularly dense patches of forest, for those times when the spell you knew so well doesnтАШt
quite work after all.тАЭ
THE TEACHINGS OF EBENEZUM, Volume I


The day was quietly beautiful, perhaps too much so. For the first time in a week, I allowed myself
to forget my problems and think only of Alea. Alea! My afternoon beauty. I had only learned her name
on the last day we were together, before she went on to, as she called them, тАЬbetter things.тАЭ But as
surely as she had left me, I knew that we might be reunited. In Vushta, anything might happen.
 The wizard sneezed.
I woke from my reverie, instantly alert. My master, the wizard Ebenezum, greatest mage in all the
Western Kingdoms, had sneezed. It could only mean one thing.
There was sorcery in the air!
Ebenezum waved for me to follow him, his stately and ornate wizardтАЩs robes flapping as he ran. We
headed immediately for a nearby copse of trees.
A hoarse scream erupted from the bushes across the clearing.
тАЬDeath to the wizard!тАЭ
The spear embedded itself in the tree some three feet above my head. Half a dozen warriors ran
screaming from the undergrowth, blood cries on their lips. They had painted themselves with dark
pigments for a particularly fierce appearance, and they carried great swords as long as their arms.