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

little risk during this period. I served in my capacity as priest and
Healer more than once along this road. And once, following a
young boy's tragic death, I made the acquaintance of a man who
shared our road, a traveler named Gerald Tarrant.

How shall I describe this man who later played such a part in our
undertaking? Elegant. Forbidding. Seductive. Malevolent. Utterly
ruthless. I enclose a drawing of his 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 fashioned after Merentha
Castle, home to the Hunter and his servants. There, to our dismay,
we discovered our companion's true identity...

I wish that I had gentler words for this, Holiness, that could ease
the blow of such terrible knowledge. I wish such words existed. But
let me say it simply: the creature known to you as the Hunter, who