The King’s Buccaneer. Raymond E. Feist

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СКАЧАТЬ mood, laughing loudly at two stories they had heard Amos tell many times before.

      As Amos started telling his third tale of adventure and wonder, Pug said, ‘If you will excuse me for a moment. Nakor, might I have a word in private with you?’

      The little Isalani jumped to his feet and hurried toward the door Pug had indicated. They entered another of the many gardens on the property, and Pug said, ‘I have been told that this visit was your idea?’

      Nakor said, ‘I never expected to meet …’

      Pug said, ‘How did you know?’

      The Isalani shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I just know.’

      Pug halted next to a low bench and said, ‘Who are you?’

      Nakor sat upon the bench, pulling his feet under him. ‘A man. I know things. I do tricks.’

      Pug studied him in silence for a long moment. Sitting upon the edge of a reflecting pool, he said at last, ‘Ryana’s people have come to trust me. She is the daughter of one I knew twenty years ago. They are among the last of their race, and most men think them legends.’

      ‘I saw one once,’ said the unabashed little man. ‘I was traveling the road from Toowomba to Injune, in the mountains. At sunset I saw one off in the distance, resting upon the peak of a mountain, in the sunlight. I thought it odd that he should be sitting there alone, but then I considered he might think it odd that I was also there alone; so, it being a matter of perspective, I decided not to disturb his meditations. But I watched him for a few minutes. He was a thing of beauty, like your Lady Ryana.’ He shook his head. ‘Wonderful creatures. Some men count them gods, I have been told. I would like to talk to one.’

      Pug said, ‘Ryana is young, just having come to intelligence after years of living as a wild creature, in the fashion of her race; she is barely able to understand her own nature or her new power. It’s better if we limit her contact with humans for a while.’

      Nakor shrugged. ‘If you say. I have seen her. That is enough, perhaps.’

      Pug smiled. ‘You are a rare man.’

      Nakor shrugged again. ‘I choose not to become upset about things I have no control over.’

      ‘Why the visit, Nakor?’

      The man’s usually grinning visage took on a somber expression. ‘Two reasons. I wished to meet you, for it was your words that brought me to Stardock.’

      ‘My words?’

      ‘Once you told a man named James that should he meet someone like me, he should say, “There is no magic.”’ Pug nodded. ‘So when he said this thing to me, I went to Stardock, to find you. You were gone, but I stayed there awhile. I found many serious men who did not understand that magic is only tricks.’

      Pug found himself grinning. ‘I’ve heard you were a bit of a shock to Watum and Korsh.’

      Nakor’s grin returned to match Pug’s. ‘They are fussy men, who take their school much too seriously. I moved among the students and recruited many to my point of view. They call themselves the Blue Riders in my honor and are united to resist the insular notions of those two old ladies you left in charge.’

      Pug laughed. ‘The brothers Korsh and Watum were my most apt students. I don’t think they’d appreciate your calling them old ladies.’

      Nakor said, ‘They didn’t. But they act like them. “Don’t tell this; don’t share that.” They just don’t understand that there is no magic’

      Pug sighed. ‘When I looked at what ten years of work had brought forth at Stardock, I saw a repeat of the past, another Assembly of Great Ones, such as I knew upon the world of Kelewan: a band of men pledged to nothing but their own power and greatness, at the expense of others.’

      Nakor nodded. ‘They like being mysterious and pretending they’re important.’

      Pug laughed. ‘Oh, had you visited me upon Kelewan, so many years past, you would have said worse about me.’

      I’ve met some of your Great Ones,’ answered Nakor. ‘The rift gate still operates, and we still trade with the Empire. Tsurani goods come through and we send back metals. The Mistress of the Empire is a shrewd negotiator, and everyone stays happy on both sides. From time to time a Tsurani Great One visits. And some alien magicians from Chakahar. Did you not know?’

      Pug shook his head and sighed. ‘If cho-ja magicians from Chakahar are at Stardock, then the Assembly’s control over the Empire has been ended.’ His eyes misted over and he said, ‘There are things I thought I would never see in my days, Nakor. The end of that tradition was foremost among them – much of what gave the Assembly its power was based on fear and lies: lies about magicians, lies about the Empire, and lies about those outside the Empire’s borders.’

      Nakor seemed to understand Pug’s words. ‘Lies can live a long time. But not forever. You should return and visit.’

      Pug shook his head, not certain if the little man meant Kelewan or Stardock. ‘For nearly nine years I have put my past behind me. My children now look of an age with me, and soon will look older. I’ve seen my wife die, and my teachers. Old friends on two worlds have traveled into death’s hall. I have no wish to watch my children grow old.’ Pug stood and paced a bit. ‘I do not know if I was wise, Nakor, only that I feared that more than anything.’

      Nakor nodded. ‘We are alike, in some ways.’

      Pug turned and stared at the little man. ‘In what ways?’

      Nakor grinned. ‘I have lived three times the normal span of a man. My birth was recorded in the census of Kesh in the time of the Emperor Sajanjaro, great-grandfather of the wife of Emperor Diiagái. I saw the Empress, his wife’s mother, nine years ago. She was an old woman who had ruled for more than forty years. I remember when she was a baby, and I was then as you see me now.’ Nakor sighed. ‘I have never been a man to trust others, perhaps because of my trade.’ He produced a deck of cards seemingly out of nowhere and fanned it with one hand; then, with a flick of his wrist, the cards vanished. ‘But I understand what you say. No one I knew as a child lives today.’

      Pug sat again on the fountain and asked, ‘Why else have you come?’

      Nakor said, ‘I see things. I do not know how, but there are moments when I know. Nicholas is upon a voyage that will take him far beyond Crydee. And there is to be much danger in the boy’s future.’

      Pug was silent for a long time, thinking about what the small man had said. Finally he said, ‘What must I do to help?’

      Nakor shook his head. ‘I am not a wise man by nature. I have been called a frivolous man – by Watum and Korsh, and by Ghuda most recently.’ Pug smiled at that. ‘I do not understand my abilities, sometimes.’ He sighed. ‘You are a man of great gifts and attainments, by all accounts. You live among creatures of wonder and do not think it strange. I saw the work you left behind at Stardock, and it is impressive. For me to advise you is presumptuous.’

      ‘Presumptuous or not, advise.’

      Nakor bit his lower lip as he thought. ‘I think the boy is a nexus.’ Waving his hand in a vague circle, he said, ‘Dark forces move and they СКАЧАТЬ