"Lawrence Watt-Evans - Ethshar 3 - The Unwilling Warlord" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watt-Evans Lawrence)

"Nothing," Dogal told him.
"Nothing?"
"Well, almost. A couple of leagues of sand, and then the edge of the
World. If you stand up in the stirrups and stare, you may be able to see it."
"See it?"
"Yes."
That, Sterren thought, was a very interesting concept, seeing the edge of
the World. Standing up in the stirrups, however, was a terrifying concept, so
he decided to forgo the view.
How, he wondered, could one see the edge of the World? What did it look
like? What lay beyond it? The southern horizon, he noticed, did look slightly
different from the others; there seemed to be a yellowish tinge to both ground
and sky in that direction. He stared, but could make out nothing.
The very idea fascinated him, all the same. To be so close to the actual
edge!
He had thought that Ethshar of the Spices was in the center of the World,
but if he had come so close to the edge so quickly, then that could not be so;
he knew the World was bigger than that. He had heard travelers speak of
Ethshar as being in the southeast, but had, until now, put it down to a
distorted worldview.
Obviously, it was his own view that had been in error.
That was quite a realization, that he had been wrong. He wondered if he
had ever been wrong about anything important.
Dogal distracted him from that line of thought. "Might be Ophkar to the
north of us now," he remarked. "Skaia's not that big. Bigger than Semma or
Akalla, smaller than Ophkar."
"Semma is next, beyond Ophkar?" Sterren asked.
Dogal nodded. "That's right. Your accent is improving greatly, Lord
Sterren; congratulations."
Sterren said nothing in return, but felt a touch of pride. He had tried
very hard to get the accent right on the barbaric names of the surrounding
kingdoms, and it was good to know he had succeeded.
He had come to realize that Akalla, Skaia, and Ophkar were all indeed
separate kingdoms, squeezed into the thirteen leagues between Semma and the
coast, and he marveled that the Small Kingdoms were that small.
He also wondered all the more just what he was getting into. If the
kingdoms were crowded together that closely, they must surely rub each other
the wrong way every so often. No wonder they needed warlords.
"What is Semma... What... Tell me about Semma," he said, unable to come
up with the words to ask, "What is Semma like?" or "What sort of a place is
Semma?"
Dogal shrugged. "Not much to tell."
"There must be something you can tell me; are there many cities?"
"No cities."
Sterren could not think of a word for "town." Instead, he asked, "Are
there many castles?" The word for castle was indeed karnak; he had checked on
that back at the inn.
"Just one, Semma Castle. That's where we're going."
Dogal was not exactly a torrent of information, Sterren decided; he
nudged his mount over toward Alder, on his right.