"Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - Deathgate Cycle 5 - The Hand of Chaos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weis Margaret)

of the original: air, fire, stone, water. The four are connected by the
magical Death's Gate—conduits through which those possessing the rune-magic
may safely travel. The four worlds should have worked to support each other:
Pryan, the world of fire, would supply energy to Abarrach, the world of stone.
Abarrach would supply ores and minerals to Chelestra, world of water, and so
forth. All was to be coordinated and fueled by a wondrous machine, the
Kicksey-winsey, which the Sartan constructed on Arianus.

But the plans of the Sartan went awry. Their populations on each of the worlds
began to mysteriously dwindle and die out. The Sartan on each world called for
help from the others, but their pleas went unanswered. Each world had its own
troubles.

I discovered this, you see, because it was my task—assigned to me by Xar—to
travel to each of the worlds. I was to spy them out and discover what had
happened to our ancient enemy. And so, I visited each realm. The complete
record of my adventures can be found in my journals, which have come to be
known as The Death Gate Cycle.

What I learned was a complete surprise. My discoveries changed my life—and not
for the better. When I set forth, I had all the answers. Now, I am left only
with questions.

My lord blames my unsettled state of mind on a Sartan I met during my travels.
A Sartan who calls himself by a mensch name—Alfred Montbank. And at first, I
agreed with my lord. I blamed Alfred, I was convinced he was tricking me.

But now, I am not so certain. I doubt everything—myself... my lord.

Let me try to teil you—in brief—what happened to me.

ARIANUS

The first world I visited was the world of air, Arianus. It is made up of
floating continents that exist on three levels. The Low Realm is the home of
the dwarves, and it is here, on Drevlin, that the Sartan built the great and
wondrous machine, the Kicksey-winsey. But before the Sartan could get the
machine working, they began to die. Panic-stricken, they placed their young
people into a state of suspended animation, hoping that when they awoke, the
situation would have stabilized.

But only one of the Sartan survived—Alfred. He awoke to find himself the only
one of his friends and family still alive. The knowledge appalled him,
terrified him. He felt responsible for the chaos into which his world had
fallen—for the mensch were, of course, on the brink of all-out war. Yet he was
afraid of revealing the truth about himself. His rune-magic would give him the
power of a demigod over the mensch. He feared that the mensch would try to
force him to use his magic for their own destructive ends. And so Alfred hid
his power, refused to use it even to save himself. Today, whenever he is
threatened, instead of fighting back with his strong magic, Alfred faints.