"Hawke, Simon - Sorcerer 3 - The Ambivalent Magician" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hawke Simon)

THE AMBIVALENT MAGICIANTHE AMBIVALENT MAGICIAN

Copyright й 1996 by Simon Hawke
ebook ver. 1.0

FOR THE SONORA WRITERS WORKSHOP,
with warm thanks to my students, Janis Gemetta, Carrie Cooper, Roser Hyland,
Davis Palmer, Misha Bumett, Phil Fleishman, Barbara McCulloush, Shiori Pluard,
Dan Tuttle, Ron Wilcox and Toby Herschler, with all the best wishes in their own
writing endeavors. Also, special thanks to Dave Foster, Margie and James Kosky,
Bruce and Peggy Wiley, Bob Powers, Sandy West, all my friends in the ECS and the
SCA, and Otis Bronson and my colleagues in the writing department at Pima
Community College in Tuscon, Arizona. Thanks for the friendship and support.

One


"At last! I've done it! After months of ceaseless scrying, spellcasting and
divination, endless, patient searching through the vast, uncharted reaches of
the ethereal planes, I've finally found him!"
"Found who, Master?" the wizard's hairy little troll familiar asked, pausing in
his dusting of the ancient vellum tomes and scrolls that crammed the bookcases
and were piled high on almost every available flat surface in the sorcerer's
sanctorum.
"The voice in the ether!" Warrick Morgannan replied triumphantly. "That
arrogant, omniscient spirit who calls himself ... the Narrator!"
"Oh-oh," said Teddy, picking his nose and glancing up at the ceiling
apprehensively.
Oh-oh, indeed. This is rather inconvenient. Your faithful narrator wasn't ready
to start working on this book, yet. I have too many other things to do. My desk
is piled high with papers from my students; I've got to complete some revisions
on another novel I've been working on; I'm finishing up work on a graduate
degree; my checkbook is hopelessly unbalanced, and the last thing I needed right
now was this.
"Never mind the excuses," Warrick said, his long white hair framing his chiseled
features as he bent over the scrying crystal. Dark red eddies swirled like smoke
within the pellucid ball as he concentrated on the crystal, focusing his
energies in an effort to achieve resolution of an image. "You've been hiding
from me long enough! Now I've tracked you down through the ethereal planes and
the time for reckoning has come!"
Reckoning, schmeckoning. I haven't been hiding, I've been busy. Look, I've got
enough trouble with readers pestering me about when the next book in this series
is coming out without having one of my characters start interfering with my
writing process. Now get out of my computer and slither back to the depths of my
subconscious where you belong. I've got work to do.
"No, you shall not get rid of me that easily," said Warrick, staring intently at
the swirling eddies in the crystal. "You have meddled in my affairs for the last
time. Your powers are considerable, and I must concede a grudging admiration for
your skills in this sorcerous art you call 'narration,' but I, Warrick the
White, of the House of Morgannan, Grand Director of the Sorcerers and Adepts