"Brooks - Heritage 1 - The Scions of Shannara" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brooks Terry)

to be free of something that, at the very least, was responsible
for the fact that he was still alive.

How else, after all, save for the Druid Sleep, could he still
be standing there?

He shivered against the descending night, darkness all about
him now as the last of the sunlight slipped below the horizon.
It was time. The dreams had told him it must be now, and he
believed the dreams because he understood them. That, too,
was a part of his old life that would not let him go—dreams,
visions of worlds beyond worlds, of warnings and truths, of
things that could and sometimes must be.

He stepped away from the fire and started up the narrow
pathway into the rocks. Shadows closed about him, their touch
chill. He walked for a long time, winding through narrow de-
files, scrambling past massive boulders, angling along craggy
drops and jagged splits in the rock. When he emerged again into
the light, he stood within a shallow, rock-strewn valley domi-
nated by a lake whose glassy surface reflected back at him with
a harsh, greenish cast.

The lake was the resting place for the shades of Druids come
and gone. It was to the Hadeshom that he had been summoned.
"Might as well get on with it," he growled softly.
He walked slowly, cautiously downward into the valley, his
steps uneasy, his heart pounding in his ears. He had been away
a long time. The waters before him did not stir; the shades lay
sleeping. It was best that way, he thought. It was best that they
not be disturbed.

He reached the lake's edge and stopped. All was silent. He
took a deep breath, the air raiding from his chest as he exhaled
like dry leaves blown across stone. He fumbled at his waist for
a pouch and loosened its drawstrings. Carefully he reached
within and drew out a handful of black powder laced with silver
sparkle. He hesitated, then threw it into the air over the lake.

The Scions of Shann^ "
The powder expl^d skyward with a strange light that

brightened the air ab^t tlim as if it werc d^ Bg'""- There was
no heat only light It shimmered and danced against the night-
time like a living thu^- The old man watched, robes and forest
cloak pulled close, ey^ b1^111 wlth the rcflected gtow. He rocked
back and forth slight^ and for a ""oment felt young again.

Then a shadow ap^"^ ^dd^Y m the light, lifting out of
it like a wraith a W^ ^orm mat ""ght have been something