"Roger Taylor - Whistler" - читать интересную книгу автора (Taylor Roger)

held to their religion with any great proselytizing zeal. Such quarrels as existed between the various states
were mercifully free from such fervour and were usually associated with trade and commerce, although
occasionally tempers would flare over some long-disputed border lands. Whatever the ostensible cause
of many of these disputes, there was not infrequently a large element of sheer habit in them.

At the centre of Canol Madreth stood the Ervrin Mallos, GyronlandtтАЩs highest peak. It rose high above
its neighbours and dominated much of Canol Madreth. Indeed, its jagged broken summit could be seen
from many of the surrounding states.

The Ervrin Mallos had a curiously isolated appearance, as if it did not truly belong there but had been
mysteriously transported from its true home in the great northern range. The Santyth told a tale of a
fearsome lord of the earth, then in human form, who had sought to destroy a great army of IshrythтАЩs
followers who were preparing to invade the island of Gyronlandt, then an evil place.

тАШ. . . and, turning from this, Ishryth saw that Ahmral had given great power unto the chosen of his
Uleryn who by his will now moved the isle through the waters of the ocean as though it were the
merest coracle. And as the isle was driven upon the shores of the land, so the gathering army of
the righteous was destroyed and buried beneath a mighty mountain range. And, so great was his
pain, Ishryth cried out, his voice rending the very heavens. тАЬAs ye have given so shall ye receive,тАЭ
and, reaching forth, he tore from the still trembling mountains a great peak and hurled it down
upon the Uleryn, destroying his earthly form forever.тАЩ

ChildrenтАЩs tales, grimmer by far, told a darker, more claustrophobic story of a terrible king who was
entombed for his cruelty and foul magics, and whose last cry of terror at this fate was so awful that the
land above could not withstand it and rose up into a great mountain until the sound could be heard no
more.

It was also said that the Ervrin Mallos was the resting place of a great prince who, at IshrythтАЩs will тАУ or
was it AhmralтАЩs? тАУ lay sleeping until a dark, winged messenger should bring him forth at some time of
need. This however, had neither the credence offered by the Santyth, nor the dark certainty of truth that
lies in childrenтАЩs whispered secrets, and was generally deemed to be a mere fabrication, although some
said that it was in fact a true tale, but one brought by some ancient traveller from another place.

Whatever the truth, the Ervrin Mallos had an aura of deep stillness and mystery about it which had led to
its being chosen as the site for the spiritual and administrative centre of Ishrythan: the Witness House.
Situated halfway up the mountain, the Witness House was where the Preaching Brothers were taught,
and where they returned from time to time for periods of fasting and re-affirmation. Here, too, all matters
of theology were debated and decided, as were any matters of a more secular nature associated with the
management of a state religion.

And as the dark storm clouds rose relentlessly in the northern sky, a particularly acrimonious debate was
nearing its conclusion within the Witness House. For though the Preaching Brothers all wore the same
dark garb, and though the Meeting Houses that were to be found in every Madren community were of
the same simple and sombre grey-stoned architecture, Ishrythan was not totally free from internal
dissension. The Santyth, like all religious books, had many passages capable of more than one
interpretation.

Cassraw swept out of the Debating Hall, slamming the heavy wooden door behind him. The boom of its
closing mingled with the tumult of voices that its opening had released and rolled along the stone-floored
passageways. Followed by CassrawтАЩs echoing footsteps, it was as if the clamour were trying to flee the