"Simon Hawke - Wizard 7 - The Wizard of Camelot" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hawke Simon)

was... Merlin, I think."

"Merlin?" said Jenny. "Like the wizard in the legend of King Arthur?"

All of a sudden, it came back to me. I remembered the story of how he helped
Arthur become king, and how he had advised him at his castle, known as
Camelot,
and how in the end, the sorceress Morgan le Fay had tricked him and betrayed
him, placing him under a spell and immuring his body in the cleft of a giant
oak... a giant oak!

"No," I said, "it can't be! That's ridiculous. It's more than ridiculous,
it's
insane."

"What's insane?" asked Jenny. "Tom, who is he? Why have you brought him here?
What's happening?"
"I don't know," I said, entering the living room. Merlin looked up at me and
smiled, puffing on his pipe contentedly. The burning tobacco gave off the
odor
of vanilla cookies. No, I thought, it smelled more like fresh-baked apples...
No, not apples, raspberries. No, not raspberries either, but... and then I
realized that the scent of his tobacco somehow seemed to change with each and
every puff he took. He sat there, happily blowing perfect smoke rings.

"So.. .when do we eat?'' he asked.



He ate with the appetite of an entire platoon. Jenny had wanted to wake up
the
girls, for they had gone to bed cold and hungry, but I told her to let them
sleep. There was plenty of food for them to fill their bellies in the morning
and the house had warmed up nicely with a roaring fire in the hearth. Both
Jenny
and I were famished, but even after we'd filled ourselves to bursting, Merlin
was still eating, putting food away like a bulimic gone berserk. I had never
seen anyone eat like that. It was incredible. He ate enough for at least half
a
dozen ravenous lumberjacks.

As if he were reading my mind, he said, "I do not wish to seem a glutton, but
wizards need to eat a great deal more man most other people do. It has to do
with the principles that govern the universe, you see. You cannot expend
energy
without having to replenish it. Magic has a cost. It drains your life force
of
energy, and you must recover that energy or risk consuming yourself."

Throughout the meal, he had spoken at length about himself, and we listened