"Greg Keyes - Chosen of the Changeling 2 - Blackgod" - читать интересную книгу автора (Keyes J Gregory)

childhood discovery, “after that, they change.”

“Change?” Ghe asked, from the floor. Here was something he did not know, at last

“They are distorted by their blood, lose Human form. They become creatures wholly of the River.”

“I don’t understand,” Ghe replied.

“You will. You will see,” he answered, his voice rising to a firmer, more dissertative pitch. “When they
change—the signs are discovered in childhood, usually by the age of thirteen— when they change, we
take them to dwell below, in the ancient palace of our ancestors.”

For a moment, Ghe wondered if this was some silly euphemism for murder, but then he remembered the
maps of the palace, the dark underways beneath it, the chambers at the base of the Darkness Stair behind
the throne. Ghe suddenly felt a chill. What things dwelt there, below his feet? What horror would disturb
a priest merely to discuss it?

“Why?” Ghe asked cautiously. “If they are of the Blood Royal…”

“It is not only their shape that changes,” the priest explained. He looked squarely at Ghe, his pale eyes
lapis shards of the light shimmering down the facing hall. “Their minds change, become inhuman. And
their power becomes great, without control. In times past, some River Blessed have passed unprotected;
we have missed them. One was even crowned emperor before we knew he was Blessed. He destroyed
most of Nhol in fire and flood.”

The priest stood up and walked over to a brazier in which coals glowed dully. He nervously sprinkled a
few shavings of incense on them, and a sharp scent quickly filled the room.



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 THE BLACKGOD

“Below,” he whispered, “they are safe. And we are safe from them.”

“And if they know their fate?” Ghe asked. “If they try to escape it?”

“We know what happens when the Blessed are not contained,” the priest murmured. “If they cannot be
bound beneath the city, then they must be given back to the River.”

“Do you mean… ?” Ghe began.

The priest nearly hissed with the intensity of his reply. “The Jik were not created to carry on
assassinations of enemies of the state, though you now serve that purpose well. Have you never
wondered why the Jik answer to the priesthood and not the emperor directly?”

Ghe thought for only an instant before replying. “I see,” he murmured. “We were created to stop the
Blessed from running free.”

“Indeed,” the priest replied, his voice relaxing a bit “Indeed. And more than a few have been killed by