"Robin Hobb - Assassin 3 - Royal Assassin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hobb Robin)

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Royal Assassin




PROLOGUE
Dreams and Awakenings

WHY IS IT forbidden to write down specific knowledge of the magics? Perhaps
because we all fear that such knowledge would fall into the hands of one not
worthy to use it. Certainly there has always been a system of apprenticeship to
ensure that specific knowledge of magic is passed only to those trained and
judged worthy of such knowledge. While this seems a laudable attempt to protect
us from unworthy practitioners of arcane lore, it ignores the fact that the
magics are not derived from this specific knowledge. The predilection for a
certain type of magic is either inborn or lacking. For instance, the ability for
the magics known as the Skill is tied closely to blood relationship to the royal
Farseer line, though it may also occur as a "wild strain " among folk whose
ancestors came from both the inland tribes and the Outislanders. One trained in
the Skill is able to reach out to another's mind, no matter how distant, and
know what he is thinking. Those who are strongly Skilled can influence that
thinking, or have converse with that person. For the conducting of a battle, or
the gathering of information, it is a most useful tool.
Folklore tells of an even older magic, much despised now, known as the Wit.
Few will admit a talent for this magic, hence it is always said to be the
province of the folk in the next valley, or the ones who live on the other side
of the far ridge. I suspect it was once the natural magic of those who lived on
the land as hunters rather than as settled folk; a magic for those who felt
kinship with the wild beasts of the woods. The Wit, it is said, gave one the
ability to speak the tongues of the beasts. It was also warned that those who
practiced the Wit too long or too well became whatever beast they had bonded to.
But this may be only legend.
There are the Hedge magics, though I have never been able to determine the
source of this name. These are magics both verified and suspect, including palm
reading, water gazing, the interpretation of crystal reflections, and a host of
other magics that attempt to predict the future. In a separate unnamed category
are the magics that cause physical effects, such as invisibility, levitation,
giving motion or life to inanimate objects-all the magics of the old legends,
from the Flying Chair of the Widow's Son to the North Wind's Magic Tablecloth. I
know of no people who claim these magics as their own. They seem to be solely
the stuff of legend, ascribed to folk living in ancient times or distant places,
or beings of mythical or near-mythical reputation: dragons, giants, the
Elderlings, the Others, pecksies.

I pause to clean my pen. My writing wanders from spidery to blobbish on this
poor paper. But I will not use good parchment for these words; not yet. I am not
sure they should be written. I ask myself, why put this to paper at all? Will
not this knowledge be passed down by word of mouth to those who are worthy?