"L. E. Modesitt - Recluce 11 - The Death of Chaos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

had learned a lot as Justen's apprentice, and could have learned more if I hadn't been forced to
leave him because I hadn't paid any attention and healed that street slut in plain sight in
Jellico. That had gotten all the Viscount's troops after me. I'd been lucky to survive and would
have done better if I'd listened to Justen more, but Justen was like all the wizards who dealt
with order. Besides telling me to read The Basis of Order, he didn't volunteer much. Tamra didn't
seem to be doing much better than I had, and, as with me, Justen still wasn't saying much.
By all rights Justen should have been a doddering old fool, since he had been born over two
centuries earlier, according to what I'd eventually figured out. He never admitted anything,
except that he did happen to be my uncle and that he too had left Recluce. That also explained why
my father-who was even older than Justen-had been extraordinarily evasive about our family
history, and just about everything else. That lack of knowledge had gotten me, and a lot of other
young exiles from Recluce-poor dangergelders-into a bunch of trouble. A lot of them died, and I
almost did on more than one occasion. Ignorance is deadly, especially when it's not apparent.
Justen just looked middle-aged, with brown hair that occasionally streaked with silver-gray if
he had been working hard in dealing with order-or various disasters-like when he finally bottled
up the demons of Frven. Then again, in retrospect, I didn't feel that bad about that, even if I
had nearly killed him, since he was the one who created that mess-he and my father. Of course,
neither one had bothered to tell me. That's what dealing with order-masters is like. They never
reveal much because they believe it doesn't mean anything if it isn't hard-earned. That's also why
most order-masters or chaos-masters don't live that long.
While we ate the bread and waited for Krystal-my consort and subcommander-while she washed up,
Tamra, Justen, Rissa, and I sat around the table. Like a lot in the house, it was a reject,
something that hadn't quite worked out the way I'd intended. The table was octagonal, with an
inlaid pattern. The reason it was a reject wasn't that it was bad, but that it had been
commissioned by Reger. He had been a produce factor in Ruzor, until he fell out of an olive tree
and broke his neck. How he could have broken his neck with a fall of only about six cubits was
beyond me, but he'd had too much wine and was arguing with his brother. Anyway, it's hard to
collect a commission when the person who commissioned it is dead. So we had a table that was far
too elegant for the main room of a woodworker's home.
Krystal had told me it was fate, and that I should have at least one good piece of my own.
"Would you trust an armorer who had only misshapen blades on his walls? A mason who lived in a
house with crooked walls?" she had asked, and there was certainly some logic in that.
I tried the bread, but, conscious of Tamra's gibe, not the olive butter or the preserves.
"Have you reread The Basis of Order recently?" asked Justen, who ignored food unless he really
needed it.
"No," I admitted.
"It might be worth it." He turned to Rissa, sitting on a stool at the side of the table closest
to the cooler. "Is there any more of that dark ale?"
Rissa slid off the stool with the grace that all the Kyphrans seemed to have, for which I
envied them, and set the pitcher before Justen. "Hurlot says that his is the best. So does Ryntar.
This comes from Gesil's casks, and he spends more time brewing and less in the market."
"Good."
"I still don't see how you can drink that," mused Tamra.
"Neither does my brother. Or he didn't." Justen looked at me. "About The Basis of Order..."
"I've been busy. There's the wardrobe for the autarch, and I had to do the dining set for-"
"Lerris... you don't have any competition. You could spend a little time studying."
"What for? I'm a woodworker."
"You're also considered one of the most powerful wizards in Kyphros, even when you're just
pretending that you're only a poor woodworker."