"Stephen Lawhead - Pendragon Cycle 02 - Merlin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lawhead Stephen)

'I want to be as wise one day.'

'Why?' he asked, cocking his head to one side.

'To know things,' I answered, 'to know about everything.'

'And once you knew about everything what would you do?'

'I would be a king and tell everyone.'

King, yes; it was in my mind even then that I would be a king. I do not think anyone had ever mentioned
it to me before that tune, but already I sensed the shape my early life would take.

I can still hear Blaise's reply as clearly as if he were speaking to me now: 'It is a great thing to be a king,
Hawk. A very great thing, indeed. But there is authority of a kind even kings must bend to. Discover this
and, whether you wear a tore of gold or beggar's rags, your name will burn for ever in men's minds.'

Of course, I understood nothing of what he told me then, but I remembered.

So it was that the subject of age was still quite fresh in my mind when, the very next day, Grandfather
Elphin arrived on one of his frequent visits. The travellers were still climbing down from their saddles and
calling their greetings as I marched up to the Chief Druid, who, as always, had accompanied Lord Elphin.
I tugged on his robe and demanded, Tell me how old you are, Hafgan.'

'How old do you think me, Myrddin Bach?' I can see his smoke-grey eyes twinkling with joy, although
he rarely smiled.

'Old as the oak on Shrine Hill,' I declared importantly.

He laughed then and others stopped talking to look at us. He took me by the hand and we walked a
little apart. 'No,' he explained, 'I am not as old as that. But in the measure of men, I am old. Still, what is
that to you? тАФ who will live to be as old as any oak in theIsland of the Mighty, if not far older.' He
gripped my hand tightly. 'To you is given much,' he said seriously, 'and, as Dafyd tells me from his book,
much will be required.'

'Will I really be old as any oak?'

Hafgan lifted his shoulders and shook his head. 'Who can say, little one?'

It is much to Hafgan's credit that although he knew who I was, he never burdened me with that
knowledge, or the expectations that surely went with it. No doubt, he had had ample experience with one
like me before: I imagine my father had taught him much about nurturing a prodigy. Oh, Hafgan, if you
could see me now!

After that visit, although I do not recall it as special in any way, I began to travel further from home тАФ at
least, I began to visit the Summerlands regularly and my view of the world enlarged accordingly. We
called them the Summerlands because that is what my father, Taliesin, had called the land Avallach had
given his people.