"Raymond E. Feist - Serpentwar 1 - Shadow of a Dark Queen2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Feist Raymond E)

and god-sisters. Abandoned to this world
by the Goddess, the Saaur had prospered, but always
the memory of the others, the snakes, remained. Only
the Loremaster knew which tales were history and
which were myth, but one thing Jarwa knew: from
birth, the Sha-shahan's heir was taught that no snake
was worthy of trust.
The snake priest said, 'My lord, the portal is ready.
Time grows short. Those feasting upon the bodies of your
countrymen will tire of their sport, and as night deepens,
and their powers grow, they will be here.'
Ignoring the priest for a moment, Jarwa turned to his
companions and said, 'How many jatar survive?'
Tasko, Shahan of the Watiri, answered. 'Four and but a
part of a fifth.' With a note of finality in his voice, he said,
'No jatar remains intact. These last are gathered from
remnants of the Seven Hordes.'
Jarwa resisted the impulse to surrender to despair.
Forty thousand riders and part of another ten thousand.
That was all that survived from the Seven Great Hordes
of the Saaur.
Jarwa felt blackness grip his heart. How he remembered
his outrage when word came from the Patha Horde
of the priests' defiance and refusal to pay tribute. Jarwa
had ridden for seven months to lead personally the final
attack against Ahsart, City of Priests. For a moment he
felt a stab of remorse cut deep into his soul; then he
silently chided himself: could any ruler have known that
the insane priests of Ahsart would destroy everything
rather than let the Saaur unite the world under one
ruler? it had been the mad high priest, Myta, who had
unsealed the portal and let the first demon through.
There was small comfort in knowing that the demon's
first act was to capture Myta's soul for torment as he
ripped his head from his body. One Ahsart survivor had
claimed a hundred warrior priests had attacked the one
demon as it devoured Myta's flesh, and none had survived.


Ten thousand priests and loremasters alongside more
than seven million warriors had died holding the foul
creatures at bay as they battled from the farthest border
of the Empire to its heart, in a war spanning half a world.
A hundred thousand demons had died, but each one's
destruction was paid for in dear blood, as thousands of
warriors threw themselves fearlessly at the hideous


creatures. The loremasters had used their arts to good
effect at times, but always the demons returned. For