"Mercedes Lackey - Valdemar Anthology - Sun in Glory" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

see what those that were new to me were useful for. I was walking back to where the group was resting
when I came upon the type of animal that must have made the footprints. It was large and woolly, but
seemed to be fairly harmless. I had never seen anything like it in the forests I had traveled before. I
herded it back to the group, and Master Thomas proposed that it be taken with us. We had no other
livestock for when we founded the village, and besides, it could carry packs.
I thought that the thing probably wasn't safe to eat, because of the magic that had obviously
affected it. Master Thomas called a meeting to discuss possible problems from changed animals.
"As we all know, the mage storm has obviously affected the land, and the plants and animals on it.
We have one of the results of the storm in our camp now, the animal we have named Carpet. Carpet will
be very helpful to us when we settle down, but although she is apparently safe, we do have to look at the
wider range of our worries. I personally have noticed that Carpet is unusually intelligent, and other people
have also commented on this. Forest animals are often cunning, but never intelligent. We will have to be
exceptionably wary, and closely observe all animals that we encounter. From now on our scouts will be
carrying magical sensors that Errold will make. These will detect any large animals nearby, and by night I
will erect shields around the camp to protect us when we are sleeping. Does anyone have anything else to
suggest, or does anyone disagree with our plan?"
Now that people knew the facts, the meeting went well. People who wanted to be taken off scout
duty were reassigned, but generally everybody was fairly happy with what our leader had proposed.
After everyone had dispersed, I went over to Master Thomas.
"Master Thomas? I have an idea." I said.
"What is it?"
"Master, consider the level of intelligence in our friend Carpet. Herbivores are usually a bit dim,
they don't seem to need that much intelligence, but Carpet is as bright as a dog. If a herbivore is now that
smart, what will the carnivores be like? They may be extremely intelligent now, possibly even
sentient-and all that being sentient implies."
 "This is true, Errold. What are you proposing?"
"Making the sensors for the scouts won't be hard. At most, it will take a couple of hours. I must do
some scouting myself, though. While you are shielding the camp, I will set up scanning spells to sweep the
forest for a hundred yards all around. If some of predators in this forest are as intelligent as we think, they
will come at night to observe us. If I detect something, I will go out and make sure it is harmless or try to
disable it."
"That's very good proposition, Errold. But I don't want you outside of my protection like that. I am
tempted to go instead of you, but I am used to working with huge amounts of magic and I would not be
as good as you would be against a single animal. You use the smallest spells to the best advantage. I give
you permission for this plan. Do you really think that the predators will be so intelligent?"
"Yes, I do. Even before the storm, it was thought that some predators in the known world were
remarkably cunning, if only in pursuit of their prey. I think that any new `smart' predators will be a real
threat to us, if not now, then when we settle down. It is vital for us to establish that we are not prey and
should be avoided."
Master Thomas nodded his head but still looked doubtful.
"Better figure out how you are to disable predators, though. They will be fast, deadly, and
intelligent, while you are just intelligent. You need a spell that can tell if something really is intelligent."
In all my studies, I had not come across anything like that.
"It'll be tricky, but I'm sure I'll think of something, Master Thomas," I said, not at all sure if I could
actually do it.
I lay in my tent that night, furiously studying the spell books I had brought. I had an idea that would
use a really simple spell. Predators are curious, and did a lot of patient stalking. Thus, my trap worked on
curiosity and would certainly disable anything watching me. It was the sensing of large animals that I
needed to work on. I stayed up most of the night, figuring out how to combine shields together, how to
get the right range, and the search requirements. I got it together eventually, then crawled gratefully to my