"Hambly,.Barbara.-.Darwath.3.-.Armies.Of.Daylight.e-txt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hambly Barbara)

are your spells."
Rudy was silent, understanding this for the truth as he had not understood it in
the mazes of the trackless Seaward Mountains. It was the key to human
magic—perhaps the key to all things human.
"Do you feel sure of this spell, Rudy?" the wizard asked quietly. "Could you use
it again?"
"Yeah," Rudy said slowly, after long thought. "Yeah, I think so. I was scared to
death, but…"
"But you kept your head," Ingold said. "And you kept your hold over the spell."
Crusted frost gleamed in his scrubby beard as he nodded his head. "Do you think
you could do so in the Nest of the Dark itself?"
The thought was like a hypo filled with ice water, injected directly into Rudy's
heart. "Christ, I don't know! It's…" Then he saw the intentness, the
calculation, in those crystal-blue eyes. "Hey, you mean—realty in the Nest of
the Dark? I mean, that wasn't just a—a hypothetical question?"
The frost crackled a little as Ingold smiled. "Really, Rudy, you should know me
well enough by this time to know that I seldom deal in hypotheses."
"Yeah," Rudy agreed warily. "And that's probably the scariest thing about you."
"It is the most frightening thing about any wizard. A hypothesis to anyone else
is merely an overwhelming temptation to a wizard. Do you think you would be able
to handle yourself in the Nest of the Dark?"
Rudy swallowed hard. "I think so." The vivid imagination which was the
mainspring and curse of the mageborn sent a series of chills scampering up his
spine. "That's what this is all about, isn't it?"
Ingold's eyes returned to focus from some private, inner reverie. In the
starlight, they seemed bright and preternaturally clear. "The Chancellor Alwir
cannot hope to reconquer Gae from the Dark without reconnaissance of their Nest
there," he said quietly. "He has chosen Gae, partly because of its importance as
the capital of the Realm and partly because it lies at the center of
communications.
"But time is short. Our allies, from the Empire of Alketch and from the various
landchiefs of the Realm, will be assembling here in the not-too-distant future.
You will be leaving for Gae within a day or so."
"Okay," Rudy agreed shakily, with valiant mental adjustments. "Uh—just me?"
Ingold snorted. "Yes, just you, all by yourself," he snapped gruffly. "Of course
not! For one thing, Gae is a flooded ruin—you could never hope to find your way
through its streets to reach the Nest."
A drift of wind stirred his mantle and ruffled Rudy's long hair. Rudy's muscles
locked at the touch of it, but he made no move. A moment later he saw the
flickering shadow of a little whirlwind dancing away over the snow. He let his
breath out in a shimmer of silvery smoke.
"Of the mages who survived the coming of the Dark Ones," the wizard continued
quietly, "less than a dozen have powers strong enough for me to have made this
test on them. They, too, are abroad in the Vale tonight. Of those, only two hail
from Gae—Saerlinn. who was a healer in the lower part of town, and me."
Rudy nodded. He'd become acquainted in the last week with the other survivors of
the world's wizardry. Saerlinn was a fair-haired, rather nervous young man, a
few years older than his own twenty-five. He was unusual not only in the fact
that he wore spectacles—uncommon enough among mages, who could generally adjust
their own senses and faculties—but also because he'd managed to preserve them