"Anne Logston - Shadow 02 - Shadow Hunt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Logston Anne)

is, nobody's made a ransom demand. Frankly, I doubt that's what
happened. Since it had to rebuild, the Temple of Urex just doesn't have
enough money for a reasonable ransom. I should know."

"Vikram takes the theft as a challenge to the Council of Churches,"
Donya said dismally. "Of course, he's just looking for an excuse, you know,
to strike at the Guild while it's still weak."
 "And that's exactly why I wouldn't give him such an excuse," Shadow
insisted. "But I may have an idea who did."

Donya leaned forward eagerly.

"Go on."

"Ever since I learned the Eye disappeared I've had feelers out," Shadow
said. "I paid a pretty Sun or two in bribes, too, trying to trace the gem's
history, see if there was anything there. I got a bite on that."

"Oh?"

"Turned out the Eye of Urex never had anything to do with Urex at all,"
Shadow told her. "That didn't surprise me after I found out the gem was a
magicked fake. It used to belong to a mage named Baloran back before the
Black Wars. Baloran, by the way, was a young mage brought south by
Sharl III because of his talent for magical wards and protections. Seemed
he was a rather paranoid fellow about thieveryтАФBaloran, that isтАФand
besides looking like a very valuable ruby the size of my fist, the Eye had its
magical propertiesтАФFortune alone knows what. Probably something
obvious, given Baloran's reputation. Pretty little toy, eh?"

"Especially in a war," Donya nodded. "I read about Baloran in the
histories. He was supposedly quite powerful at defensive magics and
demon control, made several forays into the invading army himself, and
supposedly managed to pick up quite a bit of foreign magic and treasure
during the wars."

"Anyhow, the gem was stolen from Baloran not long after the wars,
when he'd set up shop in Allanmere, at about the same time that the Guild
started up," Shadow continued. "The timing of the two events may not be
coincidental. Nearly a century later, by what chain of exchanges I can't
imagine, it ended up in the Temple of Urex under its first High Priest,
Solam the Blind, where it's been ever since. By that time, though, Baloran
had probably given up the gem as lost; he'd left Allanmere right after the
gem was taken and set up his own enclave not far to the south, protected
by magical safeguards that were legendary. Later he moved again, and
this time no one really knows where."

"Baloran wasn't elvan," Donya protested. "I know that from the
histories. He would've been dead by then."
 Shadow shook her head.