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

Isolated little Ruwenda had seemed to be the happiest land in the entire Peninsula,
if not in the known world… until the magic spells of Orogastus unlocked the
Vispir Pass to covetous Labornok and traced out the secret route that King
Voltrik's army had followed through the Mazy Mire to the Citadel.

Ten days was all it had taken. None of the magical storms or fog-phantoms or
other disasters that had defeated King Pribinik plagued Voltrik. In fact, the
abominable Skritek themselves were rumored to have allied with him! Under the
aegis of the sorcerer Orogastus, Labornoki forces had quickly reduced the hill
forts to rubble, sacked the nearby Dylex townships and sent their inhabitants
fleeing to the remote eastern counties, and come almost without hindrance to the
outer bulwarks of the ancient Citadel itself. Soon it would fall to Voltrik, and the
kingdom with it.

As the beleaguered Ruwendian royalty and their courtiers wrangled and wept,
there suddenly came another tremendous flash of light and an ear-splitting
detonation. The thick walls of the keep shook like a wattle hut before the winter
monsoon. For an instant shocked silence prevailed within and without the Citadel.
Then from below arose a roar from ten thousand throats and a triumphant
sounding of bugle horns. It was plain that the gate of the huge central structure
itself had been blasted open and the invaders were rushing inside.

Now Lord Sotolain came with the King's armor and quickly helped him to
harness, and Krain sighed as he hefted the heavy sword of his great-great-great-
grandsire Karaborlo, which he and his Companions knew he would wield bravely
but ineptly. Neither the magnificent suit of shining steel inset with sapphires nor
the crowned battle-helmet with its effigy of a platinum lammergeier could make
King Krain more than he was — a mild-tempered middle-aged man, great of heart
and mind but hopelessly unfit to be a warrior.

When his helm had been laced on he made his final farewell to his family. "I have
been a scholar and not a fighter, and this I do not regret. For long generations our
beloved land has known only peace. We have been protected — or so we were
taught to believe — by the Archimage Binah: she who is called the White Lady,
the Lady of the Flower, the Guardian, the Keeper of the Black Trillium. Numbers
of us standing here on this day of misfortune saw her and heard her as she
wrought marvelously at the birth of our triplet Princesses. The Archimage told us
that all would be well, but she also spoke mysteriously of a particular destiny and

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dreadful tasks awaiting the royal daughters. We did not understand her words, and
most of us — even I myself— all but lost the memory of them. But let us ponder
them now, for they may give us a measure of hope. Frankly, I do not know where
else to look for it."

He opened his metal-clad arms and gently embraced and kissed the Queen. Then
came Haramis, whose face alone was still unstained by tears, and Kadiya,