"Brooks, Terry - First King of Shannara" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brooks Terry)

A smile crossed the old man's face as he came up. "How are
you, Kinson?" he greeted.

The familiar sound of his voice swept away Kinson Raven-
lock's irritation as if it were dust on the wind. "I am well,
Bremen," he answered, and held out his hand in response.

The old man took it and clasped it firmly in his own. The skin
was dry and rough with age, but the hand beneath was strong.
"How long have you been waiting?"

"Three weeks. Not as long as I had expected. I am surprised.
But then I am always surprised by you."

Bremen laughed. He had left the Borderman six months earlier
with instructions to meet him again on the first full moon of the
quarter season directly north of Paranor where the forests gave
way to the Plains of Streleheim. The time and place of the meeting
were set, but hardly written in stone. Both appreciated the uncer-
tainties the old man faced. Bremen had gone north into forbidden
country. The time and place of his return would be dictated by
events not yet known to either of them. It was nothing to Kinson
that he had been forced to wait three weeks. It could just as easily
have been three months.

The Druid looked at him with those piercing eyes, white now in
the moonlight, drained of any other color. "Have you learned
much in my absence? Have you put your time to good use?"

The Borderman shrugged. "Some of it. Sit down with me and
rest. Have you eaten?"

He gave the old man some bread and ale, and they sat hunched
close together in the dark, staring out across the broad sweep of
the plains. It was silent out there, empty and depthless and vast
beneath the night's moonlit dome. The old man chewed absently,
taking his time. The Borderman had built no fire that night or on
any other since he had begun his vigil. A fire was too dangerous to
chance.

"The Trolls move east," Kinson offered after a moment. "Thou-

First King of Shannara 5

sands of them, more than I could count accurately, though I went
down into their camp on the new moon several weeks back when
they were closer to where we sit. Their numbers grow as others
are sent to serve. They control everything from the Streleheim
north as far as I can determine." He paused. "Have you discovered