"Sheri S. Tepper - The True Game 2 - Necromancer Nine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

unpleasant reputation grave and permanent harm. At the time, I didn't think of him at all.
I rode out of Schooltown at first light. It was a three-day trip to Bannerwell from the town. I made it
in two, riding late and rising early, paying no attention to the scenery and eating in the saddle.
Havajor Dike lay just east of the fortress of Bannerwell. I came upon it at evening, late, with only an
afterglow in the sky where the high clouds still shed a little reflected light. A star shone above the clouds,
only one, trembling like a tear in the sadness of dusk with its blue-brown scent of dark, bat-twittered and
hesitant. I saw one lonely figure upon the Dike, black against the glow, and rode up to ask what housing
might be available for the night. As I came closer, I saw that it was Riddle, Tossa's father, that lean
Immutable who had come to Bannerwell with Chance and Yarrel at the very end of the battle, making
battle unnecessary.
It struck me when he turned to face me that he showed no fear at all. No stranger had confronted
me since I had left the Bright Demesne without showing some shrinking from me. perhaps a curious,
awed stare followed, more times than not, by the "ward-of-evil," by an over-the-shoulder stare as he
hurried away. Riddle had no fear, but it was a few moments before I realized that he did not know who I
was and that it did not matter. He was an Immutable. They did not fear the Talents of Gamesmen, not
even of Necromancers.
 "Do I know you?" he asked, leaning on the wall, gaze burrowing at my gauze-wrapped face. "Have
we met?"
"It's Peter, Riddle," I said, pulling the hood from my head and running dirty fingers through my dirtier
hair. "I should have spoken."
"Peter." He gave me his oddly kind smile, reached out to touch my face as though I had been his
child or close friend. "To see you dressed so. I had forgotten you had this Talent. I thought it was
something to do with . . . changing shape."
I started to say something about the Gamesmen of Barish, caught myself and said nothing. No one
knew of the Gamesmen but Windlow and Himaggery, Silkhands, ChanceтАФone or two others who
would say nothing about them. Instead of explaining, I shrugged the question away. "Small reason for you
to remember. I did not stay long here at Havajor Dike once Bannerwell was overthrown. Have you
played jailor here alone since then?" I knew the Immutables had intended to stay at Bannerwell long
enough to assure there would be no more of Mandor's particular kind of threat, but I had not expected
Riddle himself to stay among them. He was said to be their leader, though I had never heard him claim
any such title.
"No," he replied. "They sent for me after Mandor died."
"Dead? Mandor?" I could not imagine it, even though I had foretold it myself. I had known he could
not long withstand the pain of a disfigurement visible to everyone, of loss of power, of the absence of
adoration, not he who had lived for power and adoration and had adored himself not least among them.
And yet ... it was strange to think of him dead. "How did he die?"
"From the tower." Riddle indicated the finger of stone which gestured rudely from the western edge
of the keep. "He stood there often. We saw him in the dusk, or at dawn, a black blot against the sky.
Then one morning he was not there, and his body was found among the stones at the river's side. They
sent for me then, and I arrived in time to learn that Huld had gone as well."
"Dead?"
"I fear not." He looked angry, biting off the words as though they tasted bad. "Himaggery had left
Demons here, around the edges of the place, to Read if any tried to escape. They did not Read Huld. I
theorize that he drugged himself into unconsciousness after hiding in a wood wagon or some such.
Certainly he went past us all without betraying his presence.
I said nothing. I did not like the idea of Huld loose in the world. I shivered, and Riddle reached out
to me again.
"So, my boy. What brings you to the Dike? Was it to meet with Mandor again?"
I shivered once more. "Never. I have an errand away north of here, and the Dike is a convenient
place to begin the northern journey. .