"Elizabeth Moon - Paksenarrion 2 - Divided Allegiance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

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DIVIDED ALLEGIANCE
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and
any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
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Copyright (C) 1988 by Elizabeth Moon
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises 5020 Henry Hudson Parkway Riverdale,NY 10471
ISBN: 0-671-69786-2 Cover art by Kevin Davies
First Printing, October 1988 Second Printing, September 1989 Third Printing, July 1990
Printed in the United States of America
Distributed by Simon & Schuster 1230 Avenue of the Ameneas New York. NY 10020
Prologue
Long ago, before the elder folk were driven from the lands south of the Hakkenarsk, the elves who
dwelt in those heights had found a valley more lovely than any other. The shape of its rock and
the clarity of its water brought joy to all who saw it. There for a time the elves lived, and
built as they rarely build, while the greatest among them sang to the taig of that place, and
wakened it to its own power. Over long years they shaped it, singing one song of beauty after
another, and the taig responded, willing itself to flourish as the elves suggested. Very dear was
this valley to all who could sense the taigin, both elder and younger folk, and it was known as
the elfane taig, the holy place and living banner of the elves and their powers.
Then troubles came: the tales are lost that tell who brought them, or how those who fled sought
refuge far away. Even to the elfane taig the evil came, and the elves fled, driven out by a power
they could not resist for all their songs. The taig remained, crippled in its resistance to that
evil by corruption placed at its heart, no longer truly elfane but banast, or wounded. Most of its
great strength was spent in containing that corruption. The taig could not attack the embodied
evil without loosing the
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2 . EHzabeth Moon
worse danger, the periapt which would leave it permanently defiled.
Few travelers went that way at first, for its hazards were well known. The elves, when they were
asked, warned all. No dwarf would venture so near the Ladysforest, and humans, for the most part,
preferred the easier pass at Valdaire, or the shorter one over Dwarfwatch. So for long years the
contending powers in the valley had only each other to feed on. A stray ore here, a wolfpack
thereтАФthese nourished the conflict ill. And of the travelers that passed, not all were apt for
use. Some, when the visions came, woke quickly and fled, leaving packs and animals behind. Others,
greedy for treasure, stormed into the ruins without sense, and fell to the first of the traps and
creatures, ending as servants of evil, or its food.
But ages passed, and time dulled human memories, and ever the contending powers sought lives and
souls to serve them, to war in their long and bitter strife. As elven influence waned hi Lyonya,
the nearest settled land, few asked elves for advice; fewer still obeyed. Bold explorers, half
brigand, wandered the northern slopes. From time to time an entire band disappeared below the
valley's ruins, to live in the eternal light of the old halls, and fight for whichever power could
enchant each separate soul. There they died, for none came alive from the banast taig. So the
treasure accumulated, over the years: most of it the weaponry and armor of wandering mercenaries
or brigands, but also odd bits of magical equipment, scholars scrollsтАФ whatever a lost traveler
might be carrying.
Then two more travelers entered the valley.