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

aborigines have bodies of a different sort from humans, and perhaps you are more vulnerable to the
rod's magic."
"Perhaps!" I cried. "Is that all these murders are to you? A riddle to be pondered?"
"I did not mean to kill your people," he said. "I am not a heartless monster." He paused,
thinking, as I continued to curse him impotently. Then he said: "I will make it up to you by
tripling your reward and taking you into my service. I am the Master of Tuzamen nowтАФand in time I
will rule the world. I would deem a voorman a most valuable servant."
A scathing refusal was on my lips, but prudence made me choke it back. Nothing could restore my
wife, my children, or my friends. I would have my revenge upon this dark wizard one way or
another, but he was apt to kill me out of hand if I defied him now. We were only a single day's
flight from the icecap's edge, and my village lay an hour or so beyond.
"I will consider your offer," I growled, turning away from him in the tent. I pretended to snore,
and soon he was asleep again himself. I thought about what to do. When I had been afire with grief
and fury, I would gladly have slain him. Now I could not do the deed in cold blood. There were the
voors . . . but I could not deliberately order them to attack him, either. If I murdered him, I
should be no better than Portolanus himself.
I crept from the tent, came close to Nunusio, and addressed my great friend in the speech without
words, asking his advice.
He said: In days long gone, when the Mountain Folk were sore perplexed, they sought counsel of the
Archimage, the White Lady, she who is the guardian and protector of all Folk.
I said I had heard tales of her as a child, but surely she dwelt in some distant corner of the
world and would care nothing for the plight of a poor Dorok of Tuzamen.
We voor know where she dwells, Nunusio said, and it is afar
ways. But I will take you there if my strength allows, and she will grant you justice.
I bespoke the other two voors, telling them to take the wizard safely to the edge of the ice but
no farther and then return to the village. The bereaved Folk might divide among them the gems that
Portolanus had left and my household possessions. I told the birds my further wish: that all voors
should leave our village forever, so that no other luckless guide would bring calamity upon our
people as I had, should Portolanus return and command further service. Without voors, the Folk
were useless to him.
Then Nunusio and I flew away.
And at length came to you, White Lady, with this story.
17
Haramis and Magira left the little bedroom and went down the spiral staircase toward the Arch-
image's library.
"Surely it could not be him!" Magira exclaimed. "He died! Blasted into nothingness by the Sceptre
of Power!"
The Archimage's face was clouded with uncertainty. "As to that, we will see. It is sufficient for
now that we know that the Master of Tuzamen is a sorcerer who is quite possibly capable of
upsetting the balance of the world ... and the name of the place where he was marooned: Kimilon. I
know I have come across that word before, but it seemed in a different context."
The library was a huge, book-crowded chamber that was a full three stories high. Haramis herself
had caused it to be built, expanding the original study of the old wizard's Tower. It was here


file:///F|/rah/Julian%20May/Julian%20May%20-%20Blood%20TrilliumUC.txt (6 of 172) [5/21/03 11:34:20 PM]
 file:///F|/rah/Julian%20May/Julian%20May%20-%20Blood%20TrilliumUC.txt

that she most often worked, poring over books of magecraft, history, and a hundred other topics
that she hoped would assist her to carry out the difficult office she had chosen. Opposite the