"Dave Duncan - A Man Of His Word 2 - Faery Lands Forlorn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

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Faery Lands Forlorn

Book 2 of A Man Of His Word

By Dave Duncan

ISBN: 0-345-36629-8

ONE

Behind the veil

1

Eastward from the bare crags of the Agoniste Mountains, the land fell
off in scabby ridges and gullies, sere and drab. Rare oases like green
wounds pitted the valleys, but otherwise that desolate country was fit
only for antelope and wild goats, watched over by buzzards drifting in
the thin blue sky. Below the hills, a roasted desert stretched away to
meet the surf of the Spring Sea.

In the main, the ironbound coast of Zark was as deadly and inhospitable
as the interior. Yet, at long intervals where some trick of the
landscape caught the nourishing sea wind or cool springs gushed from the
rocks, life erupted in abundance. There the soil yielded crops of
uncountable variety. The people dwelt there, on islands encircled half
by ocean and half by desert. Whereas in other lands the earth spread its
generosity widely, in Zark it hoarded all its goodness into these few
green enclaves, like rich emeralds knotted on a string.

Richest of them all was Arakkaran, a narrow land blessed with twisting
valleys of deep soil and legendary fertility. Its wide bay was the
finest harbor on the continent. Many trade routes met in its markets,
depositing wealth there in heaps to be fondled by the soft-fingered
merchants: dates and pomegranates, rubies and olives, costly vials of
perfume, intricate rugs, and the silver fish of the sea. From distant
lands came gold and spices, elvish arts and dwarvish crafts, pearls and
silks, and merfolk pottery unequaled in all Pandemia.

The city itself was beautiful and ancient. It was noted for its cruelty,
and for fine racing camels. It boasted of a history written in blood.
Near the close of A-Gun's Campaign, the young Draqu ak'Dranu had turned
back the Imperial legions at Arakkaran, and there they won their revenge
nine centuries later under Omerki the Merciless. During the Widow War,
the city had withstood a siege of a thousand and one days.

From the loud and overscented bustle of the markets, it climbed by slope
and precipice, in a tapestry of nacreous stone and flowering greenery.