"Douglas Niles - Forgotten Realms - Moonshae 02 - Black Wizard" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niles Douglas)

BLACK WIZARDS
Douglas Miles

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King Kendrick of Corwell was one of the four kings of the folk who dwelled
upon the Moonshae Islands. Corwell, along with the Kingdoms of Moray and
Snowdown, owed fealty to Callidyrr, for Callidyrr was home to the king of
Cal-lidyrr, who was the titular High King of all the Ffolk.
Tristan Kendrick, Prince of Corwell, had studied some of the arts of kingship
very diligently, swordfighting and military science in particular. However, he
was less interested in the more mundane aspects of rulership, such as
economics and agriculture.
Robyn, the king's ward, had been raised as his own daughter, but her interests
lay beyond the castle. She showed a proclivity toward the woodlands and all
things natural.
In the twentieth year of the prince's life, Kazgoroth the Beast rose from its
fetid bog to threaten the kingdom of Corwell. Walking the land in a number of
guises, it recruited allies and sought its one goal: the disruption of the
Balance so crucial to the FfolkтАФ and the very isles themselves.
Forced into battle, Robyn found herself wielding potent druidic magicтАФ
earthmagic that was the legacy of the mother she had never known. Tristan
fought the Beast and created an army to defeat Kazgoroth's minions. In the
process, he found the Sword of Cymrych Hugh. This legendary weapon, lost for
centuries, allowed him to slay the Beast and served as a symbol of the lost
unity of his people.
At the same time, Tristan and Robyn found their relationship changing, growing
as a long-dormant love for each other awakened inside them.
But Robyn could not ignore her legacy, and so she went to study under her
aunt, Genna Moonsinger, the Great Druid of all the Moonshaes. Tristan remained
in Corwell, enjoying the accolades of victory, and swiftly growing bored.
We resume their story one year after the death of the Beast. . . .
The plane of Gehenna was a bleak and oppressive realm, hostile to mortal life.
It was a world built upon a vast, unending mountainside, sloping steeply
always, never reaching a bottom or a summit. Gouts of steam erupted from the
mountainside, and rivers of lava flowed across it, sizzling through long
cataracts, collectingin bubbling pools.
Such was the domain of Bhaal, murderous god of death.
A seething, angry god, Bhaal thrived on bloody, violent acts. He grew in
strength as his worshippers spread across the worlds, slaying in his horrible
name.
Bhaal sought vengeance.
A minion of the god had been killed nearly one mortal year ago, but an
eyeblink to the god. Kazgoroth was neither Bhaal's most powerful servant, nor
his most favored. Buthe was slain by a mortal, and the man who dared strike a
minion of Bhaal's might as well strike at the god himself.
The bloodlust of the god began as a simple hatredтАФa desire to see this mortal,
and those who aided the man, slain. Bhaal anticipated their deaths with grisly
pleasure.
But the man was a prince. And he was the beloved of a druid. His woman carried
her own power, and she served a goddess who was foreignтАФand thus, hatefulтАФto