"David Farland - Runelords 2 - Brotherhood Of The Wolf" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farland David)

Brotherhood of the Wolf




PROLOGUE




The week of Hostenfest began with a festive air at the Castle at Tal
Rimmon in northern Mystarria.

On the first morning of Hostenfest, the spirit of the Earth King came
as usual. Fathers and mothers took delight in heaping gifts of food for
their children onto kitchen tables, honeycomb dripping in sweet piles, the
small brown spotted tangerines common to Mystarria, almonds roasted in
butter, sweet grapes fresh from the vine and still wet from the morning
dew. All of these represented the bounteous gifts that the Earth King would
bestow upon those who loved the land, "the fruits of the forest and of the
field."

And on that same first dawn of Hostenfest, the children rose and
anxiously ran to the hearth. There mothers had left their daughters dolls
woven of straw and dry wild flowers, or perhaps a box with a yellow kitten
in it; and there young boys might find bows carved of ash, or finely
embroidered woolen cloaks to help warm them through the coming winter.

So the children's joy was full, and the week of Hostenfest came to Tal
Rimmon under skies so warm and blue that they belied the coming of autumn.

Summer is forever, those skies promised. No wind shook the forested
hills around the castle.

And if during the second day of Hostenfest, parents spoke in hushed
tones of a fortress that had fallen, few children took note. Tal Dur was
far to the west, after all, and Duke Paladane, the Huntsman, who served as
regent while the King was away, would be swift to repel the armies of
Indhopal.

Besides, it was still a season of joy, and reminders were everywhere.
New herbs were strewn on the floors: meadowsweet, pennyroyal, lavender, or
rose. The icons of the Earth King were still in place beside every doorway


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 Brotherhood of the Wolf

and window, inviting the Earth King into the people's homes. It had been
nearly two thousand years since an Earth King had risen to lead mankind.