"Julian May - Trillium 1 - Black Trillium" - читать интересную книгу автора (May Julian)

Trillum 01 - Black Trillium by Bradley, May and Norton (v1.0) (html).html


Scanned by Highroller.

Proofed by an ELF proofer.

Made prettier by use of EBook Design Group Stylesheet.




Black Trillium by Marion
Zimmer Bradley, Julian
May and Andre Norton
PROLOGUE
From the Peninsular Chronicle

Of Lampiar, Late Savant of Labornok

In the Eighth Hundred after those of Ruwenda came to rule over the swamp
wilderness called the Mazy Mire (though not completely, for they never mastered
the intractable Oddlings), legend and history both awoke to record one of those
great changes which now and then alter the very balance of the world.

The civilized nations of the Peninsula —most especially we of neighboring
Labornok — looked upon the wetland plateau of Ruwenda as a frustrating and
vexing backwater, seeming to exist merely as a thorn in the flesh of more
energetic and progressive peoples. In truth, Ruwenda was not at all a properly
organized kingdom, owing to its failure to establish suzerainty over the peculiar
aborigines dwelling within its claimed borders. Instead, the Ruwendian kings
complaisantly allowed lawless enclaves of these so-called Oddlings to persist,
offtimes to the detriment of their legitimate subjects and the general peace and
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Julia...%20-%20Trillium%201%20-%20Black%20Trillium.html (1 of 442) [10/18/2004 3:45:58 PM]
Trillum 01 - Black Trillium by Bradley, May and Norton (v1.0) (html).html


good order of the realm.

Of these aboriginal tribes, the bog-trotting little Nyssomu and the closely related
but more aloof Uisgu (quite nonhuman and therefore clearly designed by Nature
to serve their betters) were dealt with by both the crown and the merchant class of
Ruwenda as putative equals, although no vows of fealty were ever demanded of
them. Indeed, certain groups of Nyssomu were frequent visitors to the famed
Ruwenda Citadel, and a few of the uncouth beings were actually accepted as
upper servants of the royal court!

Two other Oddling tribes, the mountain-loving Vispi and the half-civilized
Wyvilo of the southern rainforests, were inhospitable to humankind but deigned to
trade with Ruwendian merchants on a regular basis. On the other hand, the