"Andrew J. Offutt - Cormac 05 - Sword of the Gael" - читать интересную книгу автора (Offutt Andrew J)

large as houses. The expanse of the valley itself was such that they could discern no
details in the great dark wall of glowering basalt at its far end. But it was not that
natural wall that gave them pause and filled them with awe.
Here were man-made walls.
Between the lofty natural fortress and the stranded sea-rovers, incredibly, stood
no less than a castle, a towered and columned palace of spectacular porportion.




Chapter Two: The Castle of Atlantis
Great were their deeds, their passions,
and their sports;
With clay and stone
They piled on strath and shore
those mystic forts,
Not yet oтАЩerthrown...
тАФDтАЩArcy McGee, The Celts
тАЬNot in all my years of wandering have I seen the like of this,тАЭ Wulfhere said,
and not without awe. тАЬCormac?тАЭ
The Gael shook his head. тАЬI have seen the palace of ConnachtтАЩs king, and
served a king in Leinster and another in Dalriada, and itтАЩs the halls of their keeps
these feet have trod. But that man-raised mountain would hold all LeinsterтАЩs palace...
aye, and a tenth of the kingdom of King Gol of Dalriada in Alba as well!тАЭ
 There was nervousness in the voice of Knud. тАЬWho... raised this mighty
keepтАФand why here?тАЭ
тАЬNo man alive,тАЭ Cormac mac Art said, very quietly.
Slitted of eye, the Gael was studying the lofty and massive pile of carved stone
blocks with its weathered carvings and bronze trim. Broad was its entry and finely
arched, the product of science and skill. Arched windows were impudently wide, in
scorn of possible attackers.
тАЬNor was this set here,тАЭ Cormac mac Art said into their awed silence, тАЬby those
Romans who thought they were the chosen of the earth. Those carved decorations...
itтАЩs from the Celts we Gaels sprang, and from the men of long-vanished Cimmeria
the Celts sprang, and from the rulers of the world time out of mind that the
Cimmerians cameтАФthe world-spanning Atlanteans. Aye. Atlantis...тАЭ
The Danes looked at him curiously.
He was staring, as though seeing the throngs of golden men in their other-land
garb, the stalwart folk of that long-ago land now gone forever.
тАЬThe great serpent,тАЭ he murmured, and the hair of more than one man bristled
on his nape.
This was not the first time the scarred, sinister-faced Gael had seemed to slip
away from them in this wise, as though he saw what they saw not, as though he
spoke of a dream composed of pictures painted on the walls of his mind, and none
otherтАЩs. His glacial eyes were invisible within their deep, slitted sockets as he stared
at the visions of high civilization and artifice before them, and spoke on, quietly, in a
droning voice.
тАЬKull,тАЭ he murmured. тАЬKull... An this great keep was not devised by the men of
Atlantis and their slaves that were taken from the men and women of all the world, I
am... not the son of Art na Morna, of Connacht, and him not the son of Conla Dair,