"Karl Edward Wagner - Kane 01 - Darkness Weaves" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wagner Karl Edward)

the islands south of Pellin. His crew was uneasy, but the captain bribed them with extra pay--knowing the
higher prices his grain could command if he returned before his rivals.

As they entered the Sorn-Ellyn, the lookout sighted wreckage. Sailing closer, they discovered a
splintered section of hull from an Ammurian vessel, and tied to the half-submerged timbers was a lone
survivor. The sailor had been adrift for days after his ship was lost, but it was not only exposure and lack
of food and water that had reduced him to a screaming, mindless madman. He went berserk when they
lifted him aboard. Throwing off those who tried to minister to tortured flesh, he shrieked insanely of slimy
black tentacles and faceless demons from the sea. As they tied him to a bed, the crewmen were sickened
by the horrible scars that pitted his shrunken body--as if the man had been wrapped with links of red-hot
chain.

Little could be made of his pitiful raving, but enough came through so that the captain was forced to turn
his ship and speed away to avoid certain mutiny. And strangest to tell, during the first night after his
rescue the castaway suddenly awoke from nightmare-tortured sleep, threw off the bonds that restrained
him, and with maniacal strength burst past those who tried to hold him. Laughing and gibbering, he threw
himself into the sea. A seaman who watched him swim out of sight swore he saw a strange light glowing
beneath the dark waters, and several others claimed to have faintly heard an eerie humming sound
coming from far below.

There are many other strange stories--enough to indicate that there is something unwholesome about
Pellin and the sea around it. And this same shadow of evil hovers over the royal family, for it is
acknowledged that the Pellin lords have long delved into mysteries best left unsounded. It is commonly
known that Efrel's great-grandfather murdered his youngest granddaughter and bathed in her blood to
restore his youth. Of his success we shall never know, as his angry son eviscerated him shortly thereafter.

Deep beneath the cellars and dungeons of Dan-Legeh, black citadel of the Pellin lords, there is said to lie
a great subterranean chamber. Within this vast cavern the Pellin lords have for centuries tortured their
enemies and pursued their infamous study of sorcerous lore. The few outsiders to enter this chamber and
emerge again with whole mind have told of a great pool in the floor of the cavern--whose waters rise and
ebb with the tides. Into this pool's black depths have disappeared many of those secrets Pellin has not
deigned to share.

But to bring my tale back to matters of the present day, and to Efrel:

It was into this same hidden chamber on a night some thirty years ago that Pellin Othrin, then Monarch
of Pellin, carried a screaming and naked girl--and though she was his teenaged cousin, Wehrle, no man
dared interfere. What they did there no man ever learned for at dawn Wehrle crawled forth half-lifeless
and with madness in her staring eyes. Pellin Othrin was silent as to what had transpired, nor did any man
dare inquire. Not long after, Lyrde, Othrin's wife, who had borne him no children, fell strangely ill and
died. While the ashes of her pyre were yet warm, Othrin announced that he would make Wehrle his new
queen. Some wondered that he would wed the unfortunate girl, for they knew Othrin had no germ of pity
in his heart. Nor could they understand why Othrin slew the physician and nurse who attended the birth
of their daughter a few months later, for the child was perfect in every way.

This daughter was Efrel. Wehrle's madness grew deeper after Efrel's birth, so that at times she had to be
restrained from attacking the child. Pellin Othrin placed his wife in private chambers with attendants
constantly on guard against her rages. When Efrel was old enough to leave her mother's breast, she was
given over to a nurse, and afterward no more was said of Wehrle, nor did any man ask. As Efrel grew
from infancy, Othrin kept her by his side and gave personal attention to every detail of her education--in