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

so impetuous, not so heedless of the lessons history had taught.
For there had never been a form of power that did not evoke mul-
tiple consequences. There had never been a sword that did not cut
more than one way. Be careful, they warned. Do not be reckless.
But Brona and those few followers who had attached themselves
to him would not be dissuaded, and in the end they broke with the
Council. They disappeared, taking with them the Ildatch, their
map of the new world, their key to the doors they would unlock.

In the end, it led only to their subversion. They fell sway to its
power and became forever changed. They came to desire power
for its own sake and for their personal use. All else was forgotten,
all other goals abandoned. The First War of the Races was the
direct result. The Race of Man was the tool they employed, made
submissive to their will by the magic, shaped to become their
weapon of attack. But their effort failed in the face of the Druid
Council and the combined might of the other Races. The aggres-
sors were defeated, and the Race of Man was driven south into
exile and isolation. Brona and his followers disappeared. It was
said they had been destroyed by the magic.

"Such a fool," Bremen said suddenly. "The Druid Sleep kept
him alive, but it stole away his heart and soul and left him a shell.
All those years, we believed him dead. And dead he was, in a
sense. But the part that survived was the evil over which the magic
had gained dominance. It was the part that sought still to claim the
whole of the world and the things that lived within it. It was the
part that craved power over all. What matter the price that reckless
use of the Sleep demanded? What difference the changes exacted
for the extension of a life already wasted? Brona had evolved into
the Warlock Lord, and the Warlock Lord would survive at all
costs."

Kinson said nothing. It bothered him that Bremen could con-
demn so easily Brona's use of the Druid Sleep without ques-
tioning at the same time his own. For Bremen used the Sleep as
well. He would argue that he used it in a more balanced, controlled
way, that he was cautious of its demands on his body. He would
argue that it was necessary to employ the Sleep, that he did it so
that he would be there for the Warlock Lord's inevitable return.
But for all that he might try to draw distinctions, the fact remained

First King of Shannara 9

that the ultimate consequences of the use were the same, whether
you were Warlock Lord or Druid.

One day, it would catch up with him.

"Did you see him, then?" the Borderman asked, anxious to