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

Zelana was certain that it was just after sunrise when the commanders of the outlander forces, led by the
bleak-faced Longbow, came through the door and out onto the balcony that encircled Dahlaine's map
room.

"The map seems to have changed a bit," Longbow said, looking down at the map Dahlaine had put in
place after Balacenia and the strange, mist-covered figure of "Mother" had left.

Dahlaine shrugged. "We've finished here in my part of the Land of Dhrall," he explained, "so I laid out a
'lumpy map' of sister Aracia's Domain. Ordinarily, we'd have relied on Aracia for a map, but her view of
tier Domain is just a bit vague, since she almost never leaves her temple."

"Being worshiped would probably take quite a bit of time," Sorgan Hook-Beak said, peering down at
the well-illuminated map. "Just exactly where is this 'temple-town' that's got everybody so worked up?"

Dahlaine reached out with his hand, and a bright beam of light came from his forefinger and illuminated a
spot on the representation of the east coast.
"That's a useful idea there, Lord Dahlaine," Sorgan said, "particularly when we're all standing ten feet or
so above the map."

"It does seem to work fairly well," Dahlaine replied modestly.

"And where's this 'Long-Pass' that everybody keeps on talking about?"

Dahlaine's glowing little spot of light moved along the eastern edge of the map to a sizeable replica of a
bay with a fairly wide river running down to it.

"Then the river's not in any way connected to your sister's temple-town?" Sorgan asked.

Dahlaine shook his head. "The east coast of the Land of Dhrall gets some savage floods almost every
year," he explained. "Aracia didn't want her temple destroyed that often, so she had her servants build it
farther south where there aren't any major rivers coming down out of the mountains. The ground's sort of
marshy, but Aracia's workers laid in a substantial base before they started construction."

"How long ago was it when they built the temple?" Keselo asked.

"Eight—maybe ten—centuries ago, wouldn't you say, Zelana?" Dahlaine asked.

"You couldn't prove that by me, brother mine," Zelana replied. "I was living in my grotto on the Isle of
Thurn then."

"Do all those priests who worship your sister plant crops of any kind near the temple?" Sorgan asked.

Dahlaine shook his head. "The farmers of Aracia's Domain deliver large amounts of food to keep most of
our sister's priests quite fat, at least."

"Fat seems to show up quite often in the world of priests," Longbow observed.

"Professional hazard, wouldn't you say, big brother?" Zelana suggested. "Priests spend much of their time
stuffing food into their mouths."