"Sara Douglass - The Axis Trilogy 2 - Enchanter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglass Sara)

and wept at the thought of reporting their failures to Gorgrael, so Gorgrael
himself began to construct the arguments he would need to convince his mentor
that it had been the right time to strike Gorkenfort, it had been the right time to
begin his drive into Achar. The Dark Man had cautioned him to wait a year or
two more, to wait until his army had been built into a more formidable force and
his magic was deeper and darker. But Gorgrael had been tired of waiting. While
the Dark Man had taught him all he knew, had taught him the use of the Dark
Music and crafted him into the power he was today, Gorgrael feared him as
much as he loved him.
His claws twitching nervously, Gorgrael began rehearsing his explanations.


Jervois Landing Arrivals
Ho'Demi sat his shaggy horse and contemplated the impenetrable fog before
him. His scouts had reported that the Duke of Ichtar and what remained of his
command from Gorkenfort drew close. For all Ho'Demi knew they were but ten
paces away.
Ho'Demi shivered. He did not like these southern lands with their damp
mists. He yearned for the northern wastes of the Ravensbund with its endless
leagues of grinding ice. He yearned to be once more hunting the great icebears
with the men and women of his tribe — not these Ghostmen whose very
whispers defiled the wind.
However, the northern wastes were denied Ho'Demi and his people. For as
far back as tribal memory stretched the Skraeling wraiths had existed. Until the
past year they had been neither numerous nor brave, and as long as his people
hunted in packs, the Skraelings had not attacked. But now, massed by the
unseen yet powerful hand of Gorgrael the Destroyer, the Skraelings had driven
them from the Ravensbund, down through Gorken Pass, past Gorkenfort and
town - where the Duke of Ichtar had stopped the invasion of Gorgrael's
Ghostmen - and into these southern lands. Ho'Demi had finally stopped his
people's flight here at Jervois Landing. It was here that Borneheld, having
somehow escaped the Skraelings, intended to make his stand.
Ho'Demi and his people had always intended to help the Southerners against
Gorgrael and his Skraelings; it was part of their heritage. But when he had
offered his warriors at Gorkenfort, Borneheld had laughed and said he had no
need for Ravensbund assistance. He, Duke of Ichtar, commanded a real army.
Well, now the Duke and his real army might not be so slow to accept the help of
the Ravensbund warriors.
Ho'Demi had led as many of his people out of the Ravensbund as he could.
But the Ravensbund tribes lay scattered across the vast territory of the northern
wastes and Ho'Demi had not been able to get word to the majority of the tribes
to flee into the southern lands. Only twenty thousand had pitched their sealskin
tents about Jervois Landing, a mere twentieth of the Ravensbund population.
Ho'Demi shuddered to think of what had happened to those left behind. He
hoped they had found a place to hide among the crevices of the ice packs, there
to await the day when Gorgrael was defeated by the StarMan. He hoped they
had the courage for a long wait.
The Ravensbundmen were a proud and ancient people who had adapted
their culture and society to a life spent almost entirely within the ice-bound
regions of northern Achar. Few had any contact with the world beyond the River