"Andre Norton - Witch World - Warlock of the Witch World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

“Not altogether. It saved you; did it not? And, as Dahaun has said, it made known to
us that certain forces are still at work here, powers long thought gone.” He spread out his
hands and regarded them thoughtfully. “For most of my life I have been at war. But
before it was with steel and weapons known to me. This is a different war, and I am no
worker of power—save that which lies within my own mind and body.”
“Nor shall I be, henceforth!”

He shook his head. “Vow no vows upon that subject, Kemoc. We do not read the
future—nor, I believe, would we really want to if we could. For I do not think it is in us to
change what will come to pass. You shall do that which is set before you for the doing, as
shall I, and every living thing within Escore. We shall go down to defeat, or ride to victory
in the end, each playing his own ordained part.”

I broke through his somber words. “You said that once you dreamed of this land at
peace once more, and of holdings of our folk well planted here. Do you not remember?”
“Dreams are not the truth. Did you not dream a darker dream only a night ago?”

“Kaththea told you?”

“Yes. She believed it to be a seeking sent by some black power, a try at influencing
you.”
“And you?”

Kyllan got to his feet. “It can be that you are both right: That you had a forewarning;
that it was twisted by some power. This is no country in which to dream. And no country
to allow some comrades to ride into, unwarned, unarmed . . .”



So we went forth again in the dawn, Kyllan, I, Godgar and Horvan, and three of
Ethutur’s men, together with Dahaun. We rode to the mountains over which those we
sought must come. Above our heads quested both Flannan and those birds who were the
messengers and scouts for Dahaun. Their reports were of a land aroused. We caught sight
of sentinels on high places. Some of them had the seeming of men, and some were clearly
monsters. Whether they constituted the enemy now in force, or whether they answered
to stronger leaders, being only hands, feet, eyes and ears for yet more powerful
adversaries, we did not know.

We made detours around some places. There was a grove by the river which Dahaun
made a wide arc to avoid, pausing to face it, her fingers in a vee before her mouth as she
spat between them to right and left. Yet to my eyes it was a grove as fair as any in the
Valley and I felt no uneasiness when I looked upon it. Varied and hidden indeed were the
many traps for the innocent and unwary in Escore.
Two days it took us, even with the speed of the Renthans, to reach the place where
we left the animals and climbed by foot to aid those of Estcarp. But that climb was not as
demanding as it had been when we came into this land, for exploration along the
mountain walls had found shorter and easier paths.
 Those who came, moved apparently by that inner compulsion which Kyllan had sown
unwittingly in Estcarp, were men from Borderer companies, among them those I knew,