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

shadowy Glismak, whose jungle haunts bordered those of the Wyvilo, were at this
time seldom encountered by humans. They were vicious savages who delighted in
the massacre of their Oddling neighbors. The last and largest tribe of Oddlings,
the abominable Skritek, also called the Drowners, lived in most parts of the
swamp, but were particularly numerous in the vast and noisome marshlands south
of Ruwenda Citadel, as well as the Thorny Hell situated in the north-central
region. These fiends of the Mazy Mire were notorious waylayers of caravans and
attackers of isolated human manors and homesteads, either drowning their victims
or torturing them with unspeakable brutality before consigning them to death in
the quick-mires. Yet king followed king on the throne of Ruwenda, making no
attempt to clear the land of that menace.

It was often whispered that the wetland rot had weakened both the minds and
bodies of the human Ruwendians. Their rulers were a happy-go-lucky lot, utter
strangers to proper feudal discipline. When the scholarly but obstinate Krain III
ascended the throne, his manifest shortsightedness in dealing with his neighbor
nations made it clear that the time was approaching when more enlightened and
progressive methods would have to be applied to a festering situation, over which
our own great kingdom of Labornok had stewed for years.

The unfortunate fact was that Labornok needed what these feckless and inefficient
neighbors had to offer in trade. Our woodlands having long since been cut down
and converted into farmland, we were dependent upon the Ruwendian rainforests
not only for ship timber to sustain our thriving maritime commerce, but also for
fine woods to enhance and furnish the stately buildings at Derorguila. Also, by a

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heartless caprice of nature, the Labornoki slopes of the impenetrable Ohogan
Mountains were virtually barren of useful minerals; while the Ruwendian side of
the range contained lodes of gold and platinum, as well as many kinds of valuable
gemstones, which were scoured out by the torrents and deposited here and there in
the mountains. The precious metals and crystals were haphazardly gathered by the
Vispi Oddlings, who traded them to the Uisgu; and eventually they passed into the
hands of the human Ruwendians. Other trade goods of the perverse little kingdom
included valuable medicinal swamp herbs and kitchen spices, worrarn pelts and
fedok skins, and certain curious ancient artifacts which the Oddlings procured
from ruined cities deep in the most inaccessible reaches of the Mires.

Even in the best of times, commerce between Labornok and Ruwenda was a
frustrating — occasionally perilous — business. More than a few of our glorious
kings, champing on the regal mustaches in fury over some piece of Ruwendian
insolence, had demanded that our generals devise a scheme for conquering the
smaller nation. But it is difficult to invade a country to which there is only one
door — the steep and narrow Vispir Pass through the Ohogans, guarded by well-
placed Ruwendian forts. Those Labornoki kings of melancholy memory who
made the attempt did not return alive.