"Haggard, H Rider- The Wizard" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haggard H. Rider)

"It is so, my father, but as I ran hither, full of the king's words,
it came into my mind that now is not the time to convert the Sons of
Fire. There is trouble brewing at the Great Palace, father. Listen,
and I will tell you; as I have heard, so I will tell you. You know
well that our King Umsuka has two sons, Hafela and Nodwengo; and of
these Hafela is the heir-apparent, the fruit of the chief wife of the
king, and Nodwengo is sprung from another wife. Now Hafela is proud
and cruel, a warrior of warriors, a terrible man, and Nodwengo is
gentle and mild, like to his mother whom the king loves. Of late it
has been discovered that Hafela, weary of waiting for power, has made
a plot to depose his father and to kill Nodwengo, his brother, so that
the land and those who dwell in it may become his without question.
This plot the king knows--I had it from one of his women, who is my
sister--and he is very wroth, yet he dare do little, for he grows old
and timid, and seeks rest, not war. Yet he is minded, if he can find
the heart, to go back upon the law and to name Nodwengo as his heir
before all the army at the feast of the first-fruits, which shall be
held on the third day from to-night. This Hafela knows, and Nodwengo
knows it also, and each of them has summoned his following, numbering
thousands and tens of thousands of spears, to attend this feast of the
first-fruits. That feast may well be a feast of vultures, my father,
and when the brothers and their regiments rush together fighting for
the throne, what will chance to the white man who comes at such a
moment to preach a faith of peace, and to his servant, one John, who
led him there?"

"I do not know," answered Owen, "and it troubles me not at all. I go
to carry out my mission, and in this way or in that it will be carried
out. John, if you are fearful or unbelieving leave me to go alone."

"Nay, father, I am not fearful; yet, father, I would have you
understand. Yonder there are men who can work wizardry. /Wow!/ I know,
for I have seen it, and they will demand from you magic greater than
their magic."

"What of it, John?"

"Only this, my father, that if they ask and you fail to give, they
will kill you. You teach beautiful things, but say, are you a wizard?
When the child of a woman yonder lay dead, you could not raise it as
did the Christ; when the oxen were sick with the pest, you could not
cure them; or at least, my father, you did not, although you wept for
the child and were sorry at the loss of the oxen. Now, my father, if
perchance they ask you to do such things as these yonder, or die, say
what will happen?"

"One of two things, John: either I shall die or I shall do the
things."