"Recluce - 09 - Colors Of Chaos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

Candar, seeking the talismans of dark order borne by Creslin the Black so
that they might be destroyed, lest the world suffer once more the same
cataclysms as befell ancient Cyador.
   Though warned by the those of the Guild of the great storms raised by
the evil Creslin, the Emperor of Hamor thought that he alone would seize
the talismans of order and thus raise Hamor to become first among all
lands.
   In his greed and arrogance, the emperor sent more than a score of
vessels, all filled with armsmen and weapons of every type and size, and
those ships sailed into the port known as Land's End and attacked the
small keep therein, for Creslin was seeking the high and great winds far
away.
   Yet, even in Creslin's absence, Megaera the black-hearted raised
mighty fires and turned many of the emperor's ships into funeral pyres
for sailors and armsmen alike.
   Creslin returned, with both his killing blade and the great winds, and
all but a single ship perished, and all but a score of all those
thousands of men who had sought the talismans of order perished as well.
   The single ship that remained Creslin rebuilt and refitted, as the
beginning to the Black fleets....
         Colors of White
         (Manual of the Guild at Fairhaven)
         Preface
 
 
III
 
Cerryl nodded to the tower guards on duty, although he didn't know either
by name, as he passed on his way to report to the overmage Kinowin.
   "Good day, ser," the older guard returned.
   Cerryl smiled politely, glad that this day was drawing to a close,
although it hadn't been that eventful, unlike the time with the oil
smugglers several eight-days before. Most days were quiet-and long.
   Kinowin's quarters were on the lowest level of the tower-and the door
was around the corner to the left from the guard station-Derka's door was
the other way, not that Cerryl had been there, but Faltar had told him.
   Outside of the time when Jeslek had tried to insist that Cerryl had
not succeeded in accomplishing his magely task-or rather when Jeslek had
insisted that he had not set such a task-and the High Wizard Sterol had
brought in Kinowin, Myral, and Derka to judge the situation, Cerryl had
never really had much conversation or contact with the stooped,
silver-haired Derka. Then... Cerryl had seen how much power the kindly
voice and stooped posture concealed.
   Jeslek, thank the light, had been forced to admit he had set a magely
task for Cerryl, whether he had so intended or not, and Sterol and the
others had agreed that Cerryl was fit to be a full mage.
   Cerryl snorted as he thought about it. If sneaking into a strange city
and killing the ruler with chaos fire and escaping unseen didn't make for
a magely task, he wasn't certain what did. Then, because he was an orphan
from a suspect background, he'd been held to a more difficult standard in