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

further injury. The Hunter was not so
fortunate. Forced to choose between certain
death at the hands of our enemies and nearly
certain death in the face of the sun, the
Hunter chose to submit to the dawn - and
thus freed our party, perhaps at the cost of his
own life. May God grant me equal courage in
my last moment, to embrace my fate with
similar dignity. By his sacrifice Ciani was
freed at last, and restored to all her former
facilities. And we began the long trek home,
back to the human lands.

I wish it ended there.

Even as I pen the words of this report the
rakh are hunting down the last of the so-
called demons, cleansing the land of their
influence. Except that they were not demons,
your Holiness. It was Hesseth who
discovered the truth: that our enemies were in
fact rakh, warped by some malevolent will
until they evolved to take this monstrous
form. What manner of creature would
deliberately alter a native species so, so that
its natural vitality was suppressed and it was
forced to feed upon the souls of others? And
what purpose could it possibly have in
binding these creations to the night, so that
simple sunlight might destroy them? I fear
the answers to those questions, Holiness.
Something evil has taken root in the eastlands
- something whose hunger spans the
centuries, whose patience has allowed it to
rework the very patterns of Nature - and we
must deal with it swiftly, before it can learn
from its losses here. Before it has a chance to
respond.

I am going east to the ports of the Shelf, to
seek passage across Novatlantis. Ciani tells
me that in her native city there are mariners
who will risk such a journey if the price is
right, and backers who will provide the coin
if they see a potential for profit in it. I believe
that I can assemble a crew willing to try it.
Five expeditions have attempted the crossing
in the past, and it may be that one or more
found safe harbor across those deadly waters.
If so, I pray that God has protected them from