"C. S. Friedman - Coldfire 2 - When True Night Falls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friedman C. S)

person, but no simple sketch can possibly
capture the essence of the man. As for his
purpose . . . let me say that I would not put it
past him to have staged the whole thing - to
have tormented a child until his spirit died,
leaving an empty shell - simply because it
amused him to watch a Healer flounder.
 Despite his obvious power - or perhaps
because of it - we chose to avoid this man for
as long as we could. In Kale, however, that
course was no longer viable. The fae-currents
were too strong and too malignant for any of
us to Work, which meant we could no longer
use the earth-power to locate our enemy. In
addition we were unfamiliar with local port
customs, which proved a tremendous
handicap. In the end we were forced to rely
upon Tarrant despite our misgivings, and I
must admit that he served us well in those
areas.

Together the four of us traveled to the port
of Morgot, where we hoped to be able to find
a boat and a captain to suit our purposes. It
was there that disaster struck. Our enemies
ambushed us, their numbers doubled by
reinforcements, and I give thanks to God that
we were able to drive them off. But when the
dust and the blood had settled, we discovered
that the wild energies of Morgot had
unleashed a far more deadly adversary, in the
person of our dark companion. During the
battle Tarrant had turned on Ciani, brutally
stripping her of what little strength and
memory she had left. When we tried to help
her he struck us down, and while we were
incapacitated he carried her off: into the
wilds of the Forbidden Forest, the lair of the
creature called the Hunter.

Senzei and I followed - wounded,
exhausted, but desperate to rescue Ciani
before she was given over to the master of
the Forest. Into that dark land we rode, where
the trees were interwoven so tightly that
sunlight never reached the ground, where all
living things - and semi-living, and undead -
existed only to serve that land's fearsome
tyrant. And at last we reached the citadel at
the heart of the Forest, a black keep