"Chalker, Jack L - Changewinds 3 - War of the Maelstrom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chalker Jack L)

different nature and was still experimental. I thought by
freezing it I would preclude a child."

She frowned. "Well, consider it now, because it is done.
Boolean must be laughing at you now. You can not deceive
the master deceiver."

"Boolean!" he spat. "He has a damnably charmed des-
tiny! Head to head Boolean is easy to deceive. His brilliance
may be equal to mine, but he lacks both talent and imagina-
tion. He is the brilliant thief, the master trickster, bright
enough to comprehend what the greatest minds come up with,
and steal it and make it his own, but incapable of coming up
with it himself. Why, right now I have him convinced that
four Akhbreed sorcerers await his exit from Masalur; four
who together could crush him or keep him for me to finish.
That is what imprisons him there -- that belief. It was easy
enough to fake convincingly. We sorcerers have certain pro-
cedures for checking for dangers. It was enough to show him
that danger clearly lurked in sufficient force by all the signs.
Would that I truly had four such allies!

"Still," he added, "it is a trick more in his style than my
own, which is mostly why it worked. He has preyed upon me
for a decade because of my naivetd in such things, but I am
capable of learning a lesson well."

WAR OF THE MAELSTROM 7

"And yet she is pregnant anyway, and possibly by Bool-
can's own machinations."

"Nonsense!" He spat. "The failure was mine, so easy to
see in retrospect. I, who have sent thousands to Hell, some-
how never considered rape. And by our own agents, too!
Those bestial idiots with Asterial's band were dumb enough
to probably gang rape the lot of them. Blast! And probably
the only time she was or ever will be penetrated by a man
happens to be the time she is most fertile' Destiny fights my
attempts at meddling with it!"

She shook her head in puzzlement. "Still, how can this
matter? It only incapacitates her and makes her more vulnera-
ble. Another one who can control the storms I can under-
stand, but a baby? An unborn one at that!"

He sighed and looked at her as if she were a small and not
overly bright child. "You are the only daughter of an only
daughter who herself was an only daughter, and so on, as far
back as your line goes. That is the only way to pass along the