"Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - Rose of the Prophet 01 - The Will of the Wanderer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weis Margaret)

you that a plant growing on this hill grows nowhere else in the desert, or in the world for that
matter.

Before you leave, you walk over to examine the plant. It is an ugly, lethal-looking species of
cactus. Squat, with fat, bulbous, pointed-tip leaves, it sprouts slender needles that must leap
out at their victim, for you swear that you do not go near the plant, yet you find—when you
look down—the wicked-looking thorns sticking in the tops of your boots.

"What is the name of this abhorrent cactus?" you ask, plucking out thorns.

"It is called the Rose of the Prophet, Effendi ."

"What a beautiful name for something so hideous!" you remark, astonished.

Your guide shrugs and says nothing. He is a city-dweller, uncomfortable in this place and
impatient to leave. You look again at the strange hill in the middle of the desert and at the
even stranger plant growing on the hill—the ugly plant with the beautiful, romantic name.

The Rose of the Prophet.

There must be a story here, you think as you rejoin the waiting caravan.

There is, fellow wanderer, and I—the meddah —will tell it to you.


The Book Of The Gods



The universe, as everyone knows, is a huge twenty-faceted jewel that revolves around Sul,
Truth, the center. The Jewel rotates on an axis that has Good at the top and Evil at the bottom.
The twenty facets of the Jewel are made up of connecting triangles, each triangle sharing sides
with four other triangles. The nexus of their sides—the points on the Jewel—number twelve
and represent the twelve philosophies of Sul. The positive philosophies—Good (at the top),
Mercy, Faith, Charity, Patience and Law—are balanced by the negative—Evil (at the
bottom), Intolerance, Reality, Greed, Impatience, and Chaos. Each of the twenty Gods
combines three of these philosophies to make up one facet of Sul. Thus each God reflects a
different facet of the Center's Truth.

Five Gods at the top touch the axis of Good. These are the Gods of Light. Five Gods at the
bottom touch the axis of Evil. These are the Gods of Darkness. Ten Gods exist in the middle,
touching both Light and Darkness. These are the Neutral Gods.

When the world of Sularin was first created, it glowed brightly in the universe because each
God remained joined to his fellows and Truth's Jewel shone as a single, brilliant planet in the
heavens. Man worshiped all the Gods equally, speaking to them directly, and there was peace
in the world and in the universe.

But as time went by, each God began to focus only on his or her facet of the Truth, coming to
see that particular facet as The Truth and pulling away from the others. The light of the Jewel