"Jean Lorrah - Savage Empire 05 - Sorcerers of the Frozen Isles" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lorrah Jean)

together are making that prophecy come true."

"And when the moon devoured the sun last year, Tiberium fell, as it was foretold," Master Clement
added.

"But we had that one wrong," Torio said eagerly. "It wasn't the eclipse. It was when the failed Readers
on the Path of the Dark Moon turned against the Emperor, whose symbol was the sun!"
"Misinterpretation is precisely why this gift is so dangerous, son," explained Master Clement. "Look at
the damage we did trying to prevent that prophecy from coming true."

"The point," put in Lenardo, "is that the prophecies do come true, no matter how we try to prevent them.
Melissa, my limited experience suggests that you would do better to take your journey to Madura with
Zanos than to tempt fate by refusing. Your destiny appears to be to become a great healer. If that is so,
then you will never be satisfied until you go and learn those techniques the Maduran sorcerers have to
offer."

"If they will teach you," said Zanos when Melissa and Torio approached him about joining his expedition.
"The stories are contradictory," he explained, "and yet Astra's powers say the people who tell them to us
are speaking the truthтАФor what they think is the truth. The Madura I remember was a peaceful land
ruled by Master Sorcerers who kept the weather moderate, so that ours was a garden isle. Now, I'm
told, they ignore the people's needs, and the climate has become so cold that the whole land is frozen and
nothing grows."

"And the healers?" asked Melissa.

They had found Zanos alone in the suite of rooms he shared with his wife Astra, in the guest house
reserved for Lilith and her retinue. Zanos still looked very much the gladiator, a huge, strongly muscled
man who rarely stayed still for more than a few minutes at a time. His head was crowned with flaming red
hair, and he raked it back with his fingers as he paced the room which seemed too small to contain his
restless bulk.

"I don't know what's happened to the healers," he told them. "At one time they were supposed to be the
greatest in the worldтАФbut now I hear they have gone too far, usurping the powers of the gods. First it
was restoring life to the dead. Then metamorphosing men into animals. My friends, ever since I left
Tiberium I have been inquiring about MaduraтАФand these are the stories I've been told.

"What I have pieced together tells me only one thing for certain: the rulers of Madura have stopped
making their people their first priority. Now they live to pursue the limits of their powersтАж while their
people live in fear. In fact, the slavers tell me Madurans go eagerly aboard their ships, willing to grasp at
any chance to escape."

"Yet you still want to go there?" asked Torio.

"It was my home," Zanos replied. "I cannot rest until I know if my brother survived the raid in which I
was taken. AndтАж I must know whether Madura could still be my home. All my life I have dreamed of
returning. I cannot simply forget that dream; I must know whether my fate lies in Madura."

Melissa looked at Torio, but he said nothing. When they left Zanos, she asked, "Why didn't you tell him
what you prophesied?"