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

"Because nothing I could say would stop him from going. He has a legitimate quest, MelissaтАФ what if he
does find his brother living miserably under this new rule? Perhaps he can bring him back here, to live in
the lands he and Astra will rule."

"And?" she persisted.

"AndтАж you must go to Madura. Better with a well-equipped expedition of Readers and Adepts than in
some way we might regret. Besides, if these things I say prove true, then Zanos will have to return
safelyтАФand therefore so will you and I."
Once it was decided on, plans for the expedition moved quicklyтАФbut it was only a minor concern of the
Readers and Adepts who had gathered in Zendi.

In the past year, Lenardo and Aradia had had to put down an attempted takeover of their new
government by what was left of the Aventine army, and put an end to the corrupt practices of Readers
who had been a small but powerful core within the Aventine Empire. Their leaders might have died in the
earthquake that toppled Tiberium, but having once broken their Reader's Oaths they went right on
Reading people's private affairs and using what they discovered to extort money or favors.

Ultimately, Lenardo had had no choice but to make examples of the worst of them in a public execution.
The others were scattered to menial positions in Academies now governed by Master Readers who had
sworn loyalty to their vows a second time, under Oath of Truth before Lenardo and Master Clement.

Lenardo's increased powers meant that not even the most powerful Master Reader could lie to him, but it
was Master Clement the other Readers trusted. Despite his protests that Lenardo had the greatest
Reading powers ever known, Clement was elected Master of Masters, head of the Council of Master
Readers. That, to Torio's mind, was the best decision they had made in years.

Now that the upper ranks of Readers could be trusted once again, they were able to determine how best
to use the lesser Readers on the Path of the Dark Moon. Most of those who had not been involved in the
attack on Tiberium had simply continued with their assignments as scouts, messengers, midwives, and
general finders of things lost.

There were thousands of such people, willing to accept the rule of the new Council of MastersтАФ but
there were also hundreds who now knew that they possessed minor Adept powers as well as their small
Reading ability. Most of those who had joined in the group-mind that took on a life of its own to destroy
Tiberium had spent the year since coping with guilt.

Not only corrupt senators had died, but innocent men as well; not only Master Portia and other

Master Readers who had lent their powers to politicians and criminals, but other Readers who had
honestly done nothing but obey the Masters to whom they had sworn loyalty; not only the tyrannical royal
family, but also hundreds of soldiers who had been doing nothing but their duty, and equal numbers of
ordinary Aventine citizens out to watch the Emperor review his troops.

The belief that misusing one's powers weakened them was such a basic tenet of Academy teaching that
many of the minor Readers in that destructive group-mind found themselves mind-blind afterward. That
was a normal temporary effect of using Adept power, but for these Readers it continued, because they
believed themselves no longer worthy to be Readers at all.

Within the past year, many had been brought gently back to their original small powers, and some were