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

When we first found this Portolanus he was scarce able to utter human speech. I never learned how
long he had been marooned in that hideous place, nor how he had managed to summon his three
rescuersтАФwho treated him with the most profound respect, commingled with fear. They had brought
rich new snowy-white garments for him; and after he was well fed and cleaned and his hair and
beard trimmed, he could not be recognized as the poor wretch who had bellowed like a triumphant
beast when the voors first landed us near his dwelling.
The "supplies" that the henchmen of Portolanus had had me pack upon the extra voors were, in
addition to our food and the tiny tents we slept in upon the icecap, nothing but sacks and ropes.
The purpose of these wrappings soon became clear. While the voors rested and I
remained outside with one villain to guard me, the sorcerer and the other two men busied
themselves within the stone house. They eventually emerged with many packages, which they loaded
onto the birds. Then we returned to Tuzamen by the same dangerous route we had come.
We did not fly to my village, however. We went to the coast, to the squalid human settlement of
Merika at the mouth of the White River that calls itself the capital of Tuzamen. There the
villains disembarked with their mysterious freight at a ramshackle place called Casde Ten-ebrose
that overlooks the sea. I was discharged and given a small pouch of platinum coins, less than a
tenth of the sum I had been promised. The balance of my fee, Portolanus said, would be paid "when
his fortunes mended." (A likely story, thought I. But I wisely held my tongue.) The lackeys of
Portolanus told me the location of the remote lava tube where they had walled up my family. I
would find them safe enough, they said.
The voors and I returned to the mountains, and I rescued my wife and daughters. They were hungry,
cold, and dirtyтАФbut otherwise unharmed. You may imagine the happiness of our reunion. My wife was
overjoyed to see the bag of platinum, and immediately made fine plans on how we were to spend it.
I commanded her and the children to tell no one of their ordeal, for when one is dealing with
humansтАФespecially those who are wielders of dark magicтАФno precaution is too great.
Then, for nearly two years, we dwelt in peace.
News of human affairs comes slowly to the remote mountain valleys of the Dorok. We did not realize
that Portolanus, claiming to be the grandnephew of the mighty sorcerer Bondanus, who had ruled
forty years earlier, swiftly put down Thrinus, the nominal potentate of Tuzamen, and took over the
country himself. It was said that he and his followers used weapons of sorcery that made ordinary
armor useless, and were themselves invulnerable to hurt, and that they could seize the very souls,
of their foes and turn them into helpless puppets.
I did not encounter Portolanus again until this winter's
Blood TVi if i w >
11
Rain, about twenty days ago. He came in the dead of night and burst into our cave in a thunderclap
of wizardry, nearly tearing the stout door from its hinges. Our little daughters awoke screaming
and my wife and I were shocked nearly out of our wits. This time the sorcerer held his aura in
check somehow, and I would not have known himтАФexcept for his eyes. He was dressed like a king
beneath his muddy riding-cloak. His body had regained its flesh and his voice was no longer harsh
but smooth and compelling.
He said: "We must go again to the Kimilon, Oddling. Summon voors for yourself and me, and one more
to carry our necessary supplies."
I was full of indignation and great fear, for I knewтАФ even if he did notтАФthat we had barely
managed to escape with our lives the last time we had ventured across the icecap, and that was
during the Dry Time. It was lunacy to attempt such a journey now, when the snowy hurricanes were
at their worst, and I told him so.
"Nevertheless, we shall go," said he. "I have magic to command the storm. You will suffer no harm,
and this time I will leave your reward with your wife so the thought of it will cheer you as we
travel."