"Andre Norton - Witch World - Warlock of the Witch World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

that my wisdom consists in knowing that I know very little, though the thirst for learning
has ever been in me. Only, in spite of all my striving, I have done no more than nibble at
the edges of knowledgeтАЩs rich cake, liplicked the goblet rim of true wisdom. But perhaps to
know oneтАЩs limitations is, in itself, a kind of sagecraft.

In the beginning, when we were children, I did not lack fellowship, for we three, born
at one birth (which in Estcarp was something hitherto unknown) were also one in spirit.
Kyllan was formed for action, Kaththea for feeling, and IтАФsupposedlyтАФfor thought. We
worked together smoothly, and the bond between us was tight, as if it were wrought of
flesh as well as of spirit. Then came that bleak day when Kaththea was rift from us by the
Wise Women who kept the rule of the land. And for a period we lost her.
Still, in a war a man can lose himself, or be able to put aside one set of fears for
another, living from each sunтАЩs rising to its setting, each dusk to dawn. And that we were
forced to do. For Kyllan and I rode with the Borderers who kept a thin line of ever-ready
defense between Estcarp and the darksome menace of Karsten.

Then luck deserted me in a single swing of a short sword, and I was swept from
usefulness into that human wastage resulting from the chances of war. Yet, for this once, I
welcomed such a respite, painful as it was for my body. For from it came the freeing of
our sister from the bondage of the Witches.

Though my right hand was maimed, my warrior life apparently past, I waited hardly
past the outward healing of my wound before I went to Lormt. For during my days in the
mountains I had stumbled upon a curious piece of knowledge. Which was thisтАФthough
those of Estcarp knew the south of their long enemy Karsten, and the north of Arizon,
greedy too for their downfall, the western seas where their long-time allies, the Sulcar
seamen, cut wave and harried shores halfway around our world, yet of the east was no
mention among them. It was as if the world ended at a chain of mountains we could see on
clear days. And in the minds of those with whom we rode there was, I came to be sure, a
block against that direction, so for them the east did not exist.

Lormt was very old, even for Estcarp which has a history so buried in the dust of
years that no modern searching can disinter its beginnings. Once perhaps it was a town,
though for what purpose one should be set in that bleak country I could not guess. Now it
is only a moldering handful of buildings, surrounded by crumbling ruins. But in it there
are records of the Old Race, long forgotten; though there are those who tunnel mole-wise
among them, copying and recopying what seems to them worth the preserving, the choice
of what to save theirs alone. When, perhaps in the next cupboard may lie, in
near-tattered scraps, something far more worth renewing.
There I sought out an answer to this mystery of the unknown east. For Kyllan and I
had not surrendered (though outwardly those about us might have believed that we did)
our hope of bringing Kaththea forth and reuniting our company of three. But to escape the
wrath of the Council we needed a refugeтАФand this eastern mystery might offer such.
So in Lormt I found two tasks to occupy me through the months; one the searching of
ancient manuscripts; the other of learning to be a warrior once again, though now my left
hand must curve to the sword hilt. For in the twilight world in which we lived, when the
sun of Estcarp was red on the horizon, half-slipped into the dark of night, no man could
ride unarmed.

I discovered enough to make me sure that in the east did indeed lie our salvationтАФor