"David Gemmell - The Damned 02 - The Swords Of Night And Day" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gemmel David)

a time of evil so colossal, so all-consuming, that men no longer recognized it. They built weapons so
horrifying that they could devour whole cities, and turn entire continents to ash. They poisoned the air,
and poisoned the seas, and tore down the trees that kept the earth alive.’

Weldi shivered. ‘What happened to them?’

‘Mercifully they destroyed themselves before they could kill the whole planet.’

‘And what has this to do with our friend, and his death?’

Ustarte glanced back at the work party. The hilltop was bare once more. Within a few weeks there
would be no sign of the tomb. The wind would blow dust over the site, grass would grow, and he would
lie beneath the earth, silently waiting. She shivered.

‘These ancients left many artefacts, Weldi. In the Resurrection temple there are objects like these,
used for manipulating life itself. In other places there are more sites, dedicated not to life but to death and
destruction. The more the priests delve into the secrets of these artefacts, the closer they will come to
recreating the horror of those ancient days.’

‘Can we stop them, Holy One?’

She shook her head, an angry glint in her blue eyes. ‘I cannot. I do not have the power, and my time is
running out. I have looked in the Mirror and seen many desolate futures. It tore my heart to watch them.
Armies of Joinings rampaging across the nations, corrupted priests wielding arcane powers, the skies
dark with deadly rain. Fear, desolation and evil rampant. I saw the end of the world, Weldi.’ She
shuddered. ‘But in one future I did see our friend, born again to fulfil a prophecy that might end the
terror.’

‘A prophecy? Whose prophecy?’

‘Mine.’

‘Yours? What is this prophecy?’

Ustarte smiled. ‘I do not know yet, Weldi.’

‘How can that be, Holy One? It is your prophecy.’

‘Indeed it will be. But such are the frustrations of seeing time fragments out of place. All that I truly
know now is that our friend will live again. I know the Swords of Night and Day will aid him. I know that
the dead will walk beside him. More than that I cannot say.’

‘And he will save the world?’

Ustarte stared back at the hilltop. ‘I don’t know, Weldi. But if I was looking for a man to achieve the
impossible, that man would be Skilgannon the Damned.’