"David Eddings - The Dreamers 04 - The Younger Gods" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

Dahlaine?"

"You do know that we have limitations, don't you?" Dahlaine demanded. "Now that I think about it, if
you're who Balacenia says you are, you're probably the one who came up with them. You may have
forgotten, but we aren't permitted to kill things—even when they're attacking us. We needed armies, so
we went out into the world to hire outlanders to do the killing for us."

"That particular limitation might just be a little outdated," the glowing presence conceded. "Right at first,
there were very few living things here, and we didn't want to lose any of them—at least not until the
populations had grown to the point that extinction was no longer a distinct possibility. When the
incursions by the Creatures of the Wasteland began, I was going to take care of it myself, but before I
could even start, the whole Land of Dhrall was crawling with outlanders. You've got to learn to trust me,
Dahlaine."

"Longbow suggested something you might want to consider, though." Zelana stepped in. "The assorted
outlanders are helping us to hold back the Creatures of the Wasteland, but Longbow seems to think that
it's much more important that the more greedy outlanders come to realize that the people of the Land of
Dhrall are quite capable of making life very unpleasant for any invaders. The outlanders are helping, but
they're also learning. The greed of the Amarite Church down in the Trogite Empire was almost legendary,
but you dealt with that in a way that advised all outlanders that an attempted invasion of our part of the
world could be a ghastly mistake."

"And your blue fire in Crystal Gorge made it more obvious," Dahlaine added. "Nobody in his right mind
walks into fire. Some of the more greedy outlanders might want to come back, but I don't think they
will." He hesitated. "You seem to be very attached to us, for some reason," he said rather carefully.

"You are my children," the glowing form replied, "and I will protect you. You've come a long, long way,
but you might want to go back a bit and have a look at where—and when—this began."

Zelana's mind suddenly reeled as memories came rushing back from so far in the distant past that there
was no word for that many years. The suggestion of the hazy figure of glowing light had seemed to set off
bells inside Zelana's mind.

Dahlaine's eyes suddenly went very wide as—evidently—the same memories came flooding over him.

"All in all, you did quite well, my son," Misty Lady continued. "Your notion of the Dreamers was brilliant,
and it's worked almost perfectly—except that you'll have to come up with a way to persuade the
Dreamers to reunite with their previous identities. Things are just a little touchy this time, however, so I
want all of you children to back away and let me deal with the situation in Aracia's Domain. It's almost
reached the point that she'd rather die than hand her Domain over to Enalla. We've got to get her under
control, because she's getting very close to total insanity. If she crosses that line, we'll lose her, and that
will lead to a disaster—not immediately, maybe—but if she's a raving lunatic when she wakes up from
her sleep-cycle, the entire Land of Dhrall will be at risk—and that risk will make the invasion of the
Creatures of the Wasteland look like some child's game by comparison."

Chapter Two