"John Morressy - The Protectors of Zendor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morressy John)

Her words electrified Princess. "The fiend! The absolute fiend! Keddie, we must help this woman."

"What, exactly, is the nature of the spell?" Kedrigern asked.

"Oh, it's terrible, Master, terrible."

"Bog-fairy spells generally are. Can you be more specific? Do you remember the words she used?"

Her expression grew grim. "They are burned into my memory, Master. She touched my baby with her
wand, then she pointed the wand at me and said in a kind of chant,
'You, who spurn my just demand,
Be a blight throughout the land.
All who hear your infant's cry
Will go raving mad and die,
Or else go blind, or lose their wits,
Or fall into horrific fits
And shake and shriek and moan and twitch
And ache and squeak and groan and itch.
Walls will fall with noise of thunder,
Beams will split and roofs will sunder;
Rack and ruin, pain and rue
Will blight the landscape through and through,
And all the blame will fall on you!'
And then she gave the wand a little flick, just so. And she vanished."

"Typical bog-fairy," said Princess. The spots of color on her cheeks, the set of her jaw, and the
narrowing of her eyes bespoke the upwelling of bitter memories.

Kedrigern asked the woman, "Am I correct in assuming that the spell has already manifested itself, and is
the cause of that pursuit?"

"It is so, Master. I've been forced to flee my home. My sister and her husband have a little farm on this
very road, and I have come to ask her to help me hide in the forest near her house until I can find some
kind soul with the power to help us. I had nearly passed through Zendor without incident when my little
one began to cry, and ... and.... "She hugged the child to her and began to weep.

"Just tell me what happened."

"At his first faint wail, men and women stopped as if turned to stone. Then they began to cry out in fear
and pain. Children fell senseless to the ground. Some thrashed about, and others lay unmoving where
they fell. All around us beams groaned, walls shook, glass shattered."

"Has this happened before?"

"It happens every time my baby cries. I strive to avoid all contact with others, but I was hungry, and I
risked venturing into Zendor to purchase food. I fled, but a mob pursued."

"Aren't you affected?" Kedrigern asked.