"MacLeod, Ian R - Sealight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Macleod Ian R)

Perhaps, I thought, time would finally despoil my beauty and bring me peace. But
when I gazed closely into the mirror at the turn of my thirtieth year, I could
see no trace of line or wrinkle. And ten more years brought no change. At fifty,
when I hadn't ventured from Torea for decades, I finally realized the full power
of the water seller's curse on my mother. I would never grow old.

"So I ordered my few remaining servants to spend all the great wealth I had
inherited on filling the halls and rooms of Torea with supplies that would last
until all the clocks in the Known World stopped beating. Then I sent them away
and sealed the windows and doors against all possible intrusion. I paid the best
magicians in this city to set traps and golems to guard the ways against any who
might be foolhardy enough to intrude. I turned inward to solitude . . . to this
tower, to this room . . . "

Her footsteps ceased. The faint sound of the waves had changed. Ran guessed that
the tide was drawing out, that morning was approaching. The stray thought came
to him that this was to have been his wedding day, that even at this moment,
Piir would probably be gazing at the light gathering beyond the grubby curtains
in the room she shared with her younger brother and sister.

"You mean that you wish to die?" he asked eventually.

"Yes, if I cannot live some life other than this."

"Could you not simply --"

"Stab myself, throw myself from the window? Do you think I have not tried all of
these things? I feel pain, but the healing is instant . . . "

Her voice quavered. Ran sensed that she was close to tears. He also sensed that
she was a little mad -- but then in view of the tale she had told it could
hardly be otherwise.

She began to pace again. "It is nearly morning, Ran Kirving. I am grateful that
you have allowed me to unburden myself . . . You probably do not realize that I
see your face whole. The blindfold you feel on your eyes is no more than a
spell."

Ran instinctively tried to reach toward his face. But his hands were still bound
-- or perhaps that was a spell too.

"I think I will let you go, Ran. But you must prove to me that you wish to live.
After all these years, I must admit that I would find the demonstration of such
a desire interesting. I will let you go, but first you must agree to my changing
the blindfold spell to something stronger. I found it glimmering in a box many
decades ago and it seems a pity not to use it. The spell will show you that
which you most fear in all this universe and the many, many others. For all I
know, it could bring madness. Would you submit to that, were I to let you go
free?"