"Eddings, David - Malloreon 05 - The Seeress Of Kell" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

be least apprehensive about simple tillers of the soil living in rude communities on
the land, and we so ordered our lives. We pulled down our cities and carried away
the stones and we betook ourselves back to the land so that we might not alarm our
neighbors nor arouse their envy.
And the years passed and became centuries, and the centuries passed and became eons.
And as we had known they would, the children of Angarak came down amongst us and
established their overlordship. And they called the lands in which we dwelt Dalasia,
and we did what they wished us to do and continued our studies.
Now at about this time it came to pass in the far north that a disciple of the God
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EDDINGS, David - Malloreon 5 - The Seeress Of Kell.txt
Aldur came with certain others to reclaim a thing that the Dragon God had stolen
from Aldur. And that act was so important that when it was done, the Second Age
ended, and the Third Age began.
Now it was in the Third Age that the priests of Angarak, which men call Grolims,
came to speak to us of the Dragon God and of His hunger for our love, and we
considered what they said even as we considered all things men told us. And we
consulted the book of the heavens and confirmed that Tbrak was the incarnate
God-aspect of one of the spirits which contend at the center of tune. But where was
the other? How might men choose when but one of the spirits came to them? Then it
was that we
PROLOGUE 5
perceived our dreadful responsibility. The spirits would come to us, each in its own
time, and each would proclaim that it was good and the other was evil. It was man,
however, who would choose. And we took counsel among ourselves, and we concluded
that we might accept the forms of the worship that the Grolims so urgently pressed
upon us. This would give us the opportunity to examine the nature of the Dragon God
and make us better prepared to choose when the other God appeared.
In time the events of the world intruded upon us. The An-garaks allied themselves by
marriage with the great city-builders of the east, who called themselves Melcene,
and between them they built an empire that bestrode the continent. Now the An-garaks
were doers of deeds, but the Melcenes were performers of tasks. A deed once done is
done forever, but a task returns every day, and the Melcenes came among us to seek
out those who might aid them in their endless tasks. Now as it chanced to happen,
one of our kinsmen who aided the Melcenes had occasion to journey to the north in
performance of one of those tasks. And he came to a place called Ashaba and sought
shelter there from a storm that had overtaken him. And the Master of me house at
Ashaba was neither Grolim nor Angarak nor any other man. Our kinsman had come
unaware upon the house of Torak. Now, Torak was curious about our people, and He
sent for the traveler, and our kinsman went in to behold the Dragon God. And in the
instant that he looked upon die face of Torak, the Third Age ended, and the Fourth
Age began. For lo, the Dragon God of Angarak was not one of the Gods for whom we
waited. The signs that were upon Him did not lead beyond Him, and our kinsman saw in
an instant that Torak was doomed, and that which He was would die with Him.
And men we perceived our error, and we marveled at what we had not seen—that even a
God might be but the tool of destiny. For behold, Torak was of one of the two fates,
but he was not the entire fate.
Now it happened that on the far side of the world a king was slain, and all his
family with him—save one. And this king had been die keeper of one of th& two stones
of power, and when wonl of mis was brought to Torak, He exulted, for He believed