"David Gemmell - The Damned 02 - The Swords Of Night And Day" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gemmel David)

conceived. And all who followed it found only an empty sarcophagus in a cave. Beside it was a shattered
lid. So they went away, disconsolate.тАЩ

тАШBut you didnтАЩt?тАЩ

тАШOh, yes, I did. Many times. I wish I could say that I deciphered the riddle of the map through the
enormous power of my intellect alone. But I did not. I had a vision - a dream, perhaps. I had been
searching the cave again - my fifteenth journey there, I believe. I was tired and I fell asleep. I dreamt of
the Blessed Priestess. She took me by the hand and led me from the cave, and down onto the arid
wasteland at the foot of the mountains to a dry river bed. Then she spoke. тАЬThe answer is here, if you
have the eye to see it.тАЭ This was similar to what was written at the base of the map. тАЬThe hero lies here, if
you have the eye to see it.тАЭ

тАШI awoke with the dawn and walked out to the cave entrance, staring out over the land below. There
was the dry river bed. Once the water had flowed, and the river had been bisected by an island. Now
there were only two dry channels etching the ground on both sides of a high, circular mound of rocky
earth. From the high point of the cave it looked as if someone had carved a giant eye in the land. I cannot
tell you how excited I was as I led the digging party across to the mound. At the centre of it we dug.
Some seven feet down we struck the stone lid of your coffin.тАЩ

тАШI can appreciate your delight,тАЩ said Skilgannon, тАШbut I am finding this talk of my coffin unsettling.
Move on to the prophecy.тАЩ

тАШOf course, of course! Forgive me. The prophecy promised that you would be the man to . . . to
restore our freedoms.тАЩ
 тАШYou hesitated.тАЩ

Landis gave a nervous smile. тАШYou are very sharp, my friend. I was trying to avoid unnecessary
explanation. It actually says that you are the man who will steal the power of the Silver Eagle and restore
peace and harmony to the world.тАЩ

Skilgannon said nothing for a moment. тАШWho was this Blessed Priestess?тАЩ he asked at last.

тАШSome believe her to have been a goddess, who surrendered immortality for her love of humanity.
Others say she was the human child of the Wolf God, Phaarl. For myself, I believe her to have been a
brilliant arcanist and philosopher and prophet. A gifted woman, and holy, who was allowed to see the
future, and to have a part in saving humanity from the Dawn of the Beasts.тАЩ

тАШDid she have a name, this paragon?тАЩ

тАШOf course. She was Ustarte. It was said that you knew her.тАЩ

All colour drained from SkilgannonтАЩs face. тАШI knew her. She came to me in the last days.тАЩ


He stood on the hillside outside his home, and watched as the rider galloped back towards the
city. A great heaviness settled on his heart. Slowly he strolled up the hillside, moving out onto the
cliff path above the bay. Skilgannon had grown to love this place during the last eight years. A
stone seat had been set on a jutting ledge of rock. He did not know who had set it here, but
something in his heart had warmed to the man who had. The ledge was perilously overbalanced,