At the Gates of Darkness. Raymond E. Feist
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Название: At the Gates of Darkness
Автор: Raymond E. Feist
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Ужасы и Мистика
isbn: 9780007290215
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Pug’s expression became distant for a moment, and then he smiled slowly. ‘That may be just the thing.’
‘What?’ asked Jim. ‘I was certain that you were going to ask me to swim ashore, sneak into the library and steal the book.’
‘No,’ said Pug, looking amused at the suggestion. ‘You’re going to use your rank to get the Prince of Krondor to send you, with three advisors,’ he indicated the three of them, ‘on a scholarly delegation, with the intention of correcting distortions of the truth in Kingdom history—which will appeal to Quegan vanity when you explain that in the process their glorious past will be forever enshrined in our annals. You will then seek permission for your three scholars to spend a few leisurely days browsing the shelves of the Imperial Library.’
Jim’s face went through a spectrum of emotions, from surprise, to doubt, to agreement, then delight. ‘Play to their vanity!’
‘Yes,’ said Pug. ‘Then, if we find out that they have the book, you can sneak into the library and steal it.’
Jim rolled his eyes. ‘Can’t we just study it there for a while?’
‘No,’ said Amirantha. ‘We will need to examine it closely, and that could take weeks. If it’s written in some ancient variant of the Keshian language, we’ll need to find a scholar who can help us understand it.’
‘And the Quegans may become interested in why we are focusing on one ancient, obscure text about demons when we were supposed to be looking at their histories,’ finished Magnus.
Amirantha said, ‘It would be helpful if you could convince the Star Elves to let their Demon Master return once we hold the book.’ Shaking his head slightly as if he hated making the admission, he added, ‘He knows much that I don’t. I taught him a few tricks when he was on the island, but I think we’d work faster if Gulamendis was with us.’
Pug looked at Magnus. ‘Have we heard any more from the taredhel?’
Magnus shook his head in the negative. ‘Only through Tomas. He and his Queen are still in contact with the Regent Lord, but you know how elves are about taking their time.’
‘All too well,’ conceded Pug. ‘Let’s worry about getting the book first.’ He looked at Jim. ‘Can you do it?’
‘Of course I can. The Prince is an eastern caretaker who doesn’t have any sense of, or much care about politics. He’s content to hunt, drink, chase serving girls and allow me to reassure him that all is well. Then he reports the assurances back to the King, that all is well in the west.
‘I’ll have my personal scribe draw up the messages to the Emperor of Queg and…will sign them. If you think it would help, I can use the royal seal to suggest that the documents come from the King, himself.’
‘Forgery?’ said Pug with newfound respect. ‘Is there no end to your larcenous skills?’
‘I have a few limits,’ said Jim with no hint of modesty. ‘It will take a couple of weeks, and the sooner begun, the sooner done.’
Pug said, ‘Very well. Magnus get us to the island, please, and then take Jim to Krondor.’
As they assembled to transport to Sorcerer’s Isle, Amirantha said, ‘I wonder how that demon loving elf and his brother are doing.’
THE DEMONS ATTACKED.
Gulamendis drew back his hand; his brow furrowed in concentration as he watched his brother from the corner of his eye. Laromendis had conjured a battle demon illusion that was all talons and teeth, muscles like iron lay over skin hard like dragon scale. Ignoring the less threatening taredhel magicians, the three demons facing the brothers threw themselves upon the most obvious danger. Demon logic was simple: dispose of the most dangerous foe, then turn your attention to the lesser. Logic was not a prerequisite for the harrying demons, those whose job it was to seek out hidden prey and drive them to where the demon captains waited. All they saw was a rogue demon, not of their cadre, in front of them and never for one moment considered the improbability of the situation.
As long as the demons believed in Laromendis’s conjuration, they were subject to damage from it, and it attacked them with frantic mayhem, slashing and biting, tearing and gouging. From bitter experience, Gulamendis knew the illusion would hold for only a moment or two longer, before the real demons recognized it for what it was. Laromendis had never smelled a demon nor experienced its magic aura, so those components were lacking in the conjuration, and as soon as the demons recognized the fraud, the two magicians would be assaulted.
Gulamendis held his wand at the ready. It was a treasure, gained by guile and subterfuge, part of the hoard the elves had brought from Andcardia to E’bar, the city they had constructed on the ancient planet the Star Elves called ‘Home’.
The wand had been the only thing that had kept the two brothers alive over the last few days, a period beyond the expectation of the Regent Lord and other members of his Meet who had wished to see the two brothers dead sooner. Only Tandarae, the new loremaster of the taredhel was kindly disposed towards the Demon Master and Conjurer, but he wasn’t in a strong enough bargaining position to keep them from being dispatched to the Hub World.
They were holed up in a relatively defensible position: a cul-de-sac of abandoned cottages in the city. They were taking full advantage of the one approach, and had created a series of tripwire alarms and alerts so they could rest periodically. Their orders had been to remain there until recalled to Midkemia, but both knew that the summons was unlikely to come, so they had secured their position and only fought when the demons managed to catch sight or wind of them.
The three that now battled Laromendis’s conjuration were minor demons, any one of whom the brothers could have bested in a hand-to-hand fight should the need arise, but together, they were enough to give the elves pause in engaging them directly.
This was the third time they had used this ploy, the other two instances had taught them how to refine the illusion and ready themselves for the moment they would truly engage the demons in combat.
Gulamendis took his eyes from the struggle for a moment; his brother had to concentrate on the illusion, so it was up to the Demon Master to stay alert for unexpected intruders while they stood exposed in the open, on top of the rise that led to the highest cottage on the small street.
Behind the struggle, he saw something flicker in the distance, near the entrance to the portals. He hoped it was the other elves here, answering a recall that he and his brother had yet to hear.
The Hub World was where the portals—what the humans called rifts between the worlds—were clustered. In ancient times, for reasons that in retrospect now seemed the height of prudence, a Regent Lord had decreed that only one portal from each world would provide access to this otherwise nondescript world. It had been home to barely a thousand elves, just enough to ensure the portals were operating as they should.
The portal to Andcardia had been breeched a long time ago, and shut down. Only one had been maintained from Hub, СКАЧАТЬ