"Gardner F. Fox - Kothar 01 - Kothar Barbarian Swordsman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fox Gardner F)

"My name was Afgorkon, long and long ago."

Kothar scowled. Afgorkon? Surely he had heard Queen Elfa speak of
Afgorkon who had been a mighty magician fifty thousand years ago. He
tried to think, but could not, being held in thrall by the black, empty
eyeholes of the dead thing standing before him, bent and brown and old.

If it could have smiled, the lich might have quirked its lips.

"In the days when this land was known as Yarth, I was a sorcerer
renowned from frozen Thuum in the north to tropical Azynyssa at the
equator. My spells could level a city or raise up a tempest on the sea. Even
now, after five hundred centuries of sleep, I still come to the call of witch
and warlock, to teach the ancient mysteries or to help a suppliant in
trouble. Such a suppliant is the Lady Elfa."

"The queen?"

"Queen or witch-woman, what's the difference? Yes, it is Elfa whose call
I heard, whose call roused up this rottedness which is all that is left of the
man I once was. She has need of a champion, has queen Elfa—and you are
the only man of the Foreign Guard left alive. You must go to her, there is a
way to reverse what has happened, to snatch victory from defeat. I have
shown her the way."

Kothar grumbled, "What is that way?"

"Only the sword Frostfire can do what must be done."

"Frostfire?"

"Frostfire was forged in the primal ooze by the devils summoned up by
me five hundred centuries before. It was wrought of a metal fallen from
the skies, it was dipped in the molten middle of the world, it was cooled in
the snows on a mountain so high nothing but a sylph—a winged spirit of
the air—could take it there. It can pierce any armor, any helm. It can be
carried only by a man who has no other wealth."
 Kothar scowled. "I'm a mercenary. I sell my sword for gold and silver.
Someday I shall be rich. What then?"

The lich chuckled. "For the past five years you have been selling yourself
as a soldier. Are you rich?"

"I own nothing but the mail I wear, this broken sword, and my boots.
But somewhere I shall find a treasure.

"Nothing man can own is like the sword Frostfire. Alone, it makes a
man a giant among other men. But enough of this! Will you accept the
sword and the task its ownership imposes—to help queen Elfa?"