"Julian May - Trillium 2 - Blood Trillium" - читать интересную книгу автора (May Julian)

mistberry brandy when the stranger dressed in black tapped at my door and said he had an important
message for me.
Yes, you have guessed it: the human scoundrels had abducted my family in order to force me to be
their guide! I was warned that if I spoke to any of my people of the deed, my wife and children
would be killed. On the other hand, if I took the three men safely to the Kimilon and back, my
loved ones would be returned safe to me, and die humans would pay me with a bag of platinum that
would equal ten years' earnings.
"The dangerous trip could all be in vain," said I, "if we fail to find the medicinal herb that you
seek."
At this the villains laughed merrily. "There is no herb," ┬╗aid the one garbed in purple. "But
there is somediing else awaiting us that will brook no delay. So summon a flock of your sturdiest
lammergeiersтАФfour for us to r.ount and ten to carry certain supplies that we requireтАФ ind we will
leave before dawn."
I could only comply.
I shall not tell you of that horrible flight into the Sempiternal Icecap. It took seven days, with
only a brief rest on the stormy surface of the ice allotted to the valiant voors each night. When
we came at last to the Land of Fire and Ice, the volcanoes were in full spate, with molten lava
pouring down their flanks and the sky full of black smoke ill smeared with crimson, like a vision
of the ten hells. A
-,;n of ash was falling, whitening the ground and coating re meager vegetation like poisonous
snow.
And there we found a lone human male.
He appeared to have built himself a sturdy house from .ocks of lava. The place was as large as two
ferol-barns
d emplaced against a great cliff, and it was not only well
-.ade but even handsome. But the man's only food would we been the lichens encrusting the rocks,
roots and
-тАвrries from the few shrubs growing in the thin soil, and
e slugs and shelled creatures inhabiting the hot springs.
7 he ashfall was doubdess depleting these, and he had no
Blood "Ccillium
more flesh on him than a skeleton when we first encountered him.
He was a man of tall stature, nearly twice my height. His filthy yellowish hair and beard reached
nearly to his knees. His face was seamed and scarred and his eyesтАФof the palest blue, with a spark
of gold deep within the dark pupilsтАФpeered out from deep caverns in his skull and had the glitter
of madness. He wore clumsy sandals to protect his feet from the sharp lava rocks, and a stiff
patchwork robe woven of plant fibers which served him well enough, since the subterranean fires
render the Kimilon much warmer than the surrounding icecap.
I immediately understood that the purpose of our expedition had been to rescue this man, whose
name was Portolanus. He was beyond doubt a powerful sorcerer. I must tell you straitly, White
Lady, that he had about him the same awesome atmosphere of enchantment that invests your own
personтАФbut his magic evinced nothing of benevolence. Instead Portolanus seemed almost to glow with
suppressed fury, as though his inner self were a sump of incandescent emotion. It seemed to me
that this might gush forth as destructively as the red-hot magma rages from a volcano if he should
ever unleash his soul's full power.


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