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

otherwise?"

The Druid shook his head. He had pushed back his cowl, and
his gray head was etched in moonlight. "No, all of it belongs now
to him."

Kinson gave him a sharp look. "Then..."

"What else have you seen?" the old man urged, ignoring him.

The Borderman took the aleskin and drank from it. "The
leaders of the army stay closed away in their tents. No one sees
them. The Trolls are afraid even to speak their names. This should
not be. Nothing frightens Rock Trolls. Except this, it seems."

He looked at the other. "But at night, sometimes, at watch for
you, I see strange shadows flit across the sky in the light of moon
and stars. Winged black things sweep across the void, hunting or
scouting or simply surveying what they have taken—I can't tell
and don't want to know. I feel them, though. Even now. They are
out there, circling. I feel their presence like an itch. No, not like an
itch—like a shiver, the sort that comes to you when you feel eyes
watching and the owner of those eyes has bad intentions. My skin
crawls. They do not see me; I know if they did I would be dead."

Bremen nodded. "Skull Bearers, bound in service to him."

"So he is alive?" Kinson could not help himself. "You know it
to be so? You have made certain?"

The Druid put aside the ale and bread and faced him squarely.
The eyes were distant and filled with dark memories.

"He is alive, Kinson. As alive as you and 1.1 tracked him to his
lair, deep in the shadow of the Knife Edge, where the Skull
Kingdom puts down its roots. I was not sure at first, as you know.
I suspected it, believed it to be so, but lacked evidence that could
stand as proof. So I traveled north as we had planned, across the
plains and into the mountains. I saw the winged hunters as I went,
emerging only at night, great birds of prey that patrolled and kept
watch for living things. I made myself as invisible as the air
through which they flew. They saw me and saw nothing. I kept
myself shrouded in magic, but not of such significance that they
would notice it in the presence of their own. I passed west of the
Trolls, but found the whole of their land subdued. All who resisted

6 First King of Shannara

have been put to death. All who could manage to do so have fled.
The rest now serve him."