"David Zindell - Ea Cycle 04 - The Diamond Warriors" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zindell David)

silent as she stared at him.
'And then,' Master Juwain said, 'we will finally build the civil-ization that we were
sent here from the stars to build. In time, through the great arts and the Maitreya's
splendor, men will become more than men, and we will rejoin the Elijin and Galadin
as angels out in the stars. And then the Galadin will make ready a new creation and
become the luminous beings we call the Ieldra, and the Age of Light will begin.'
Master Juwain, I thought, had spoken simply and even eloquently of the Great Chain
of Being and its purpose. But his words failed to stir Liljana. She stood with her
hands planted on her wide hips as she practically spat out at him: 'Men, kings, laws -
and this becoming that keeps you always looking to the stars! Your order's old
dream. In the Age of the Mother, women and men needed no laws to live in peace
on this world - no law other than love of the world. And each other. Why become at
all when we are already so blessed? So alive? If only we could remember this, there
would be a quickening of the whole earth, and men such as Morjin wouldn't live out
another season. We would rid ourselves of his kind as nature does a rabid dog or a
rotten tree.'
Most of the time, Liljana seemed no more than a particularly vigorous grandmother
who had a talent for cooking and keeping body and soul together. But sometimes, as
she did now in the strength that coursed through her sturdy frame and the
adaman-tine light that came over her face, she took on the mantle of the Materix of
the Maitriche Telu.
Atara stepped between Liljana and Master Juwain, and she held her blindfolded head
perfectly still. Then she said, 'The Age of the Mother decayed into the Age of
Swords because of the evil that men such as Morjin called forth. And Morjin himself
put an end to the Age of Law and brought on these terrible times. So long as he
draws breath, he will never suffer kings such as Val to arise while he himself is cast
down.'
'No, I'm afraid you are right,' Master Juwain said, nodding his head at her. 'And here
we must look to Bemossed, too. I believe that he is the Maitreya. And so I must
believe that somehow he will heal Morjin of the madness that possesses him. I know
this is his dream.'
And I knew it, too, though it worried me that Bemossed might blind himself to the
totality of Morjin's evil and dwell too deeply on this healing that Master Juwain spoke
of. Was it truly possible, I wondered? Could the Great Beast ever atone for the
horrors that he had wreaked upon the world - and himself - and turn back toward the
light?
It took all the force of my will and the deepest of breaths for me to say, 'I would see
Morjin healed, if that could be. But I will see him defeated.'
'Oh, we are back to that, are we?' Maram groaned. He looked at me as he licked his
lips. 'Why can't it be enough to keep him at bay, and slowly win back the world, as
Master Juwain has said? That would be a defeat, of sorts. Or - I am loath to ask this
- do you mean he must be defeated defeated, as in -'
'I mean utterly defeated, Maram. Cast down from the throne he falsely claims,
reviled by all as the beast he is, imprisoned forever.' I gripped my sword's hilt as a
wave of hate burned through me. 'Or killed, finally, fittingly, and even the last
whisper of his lying breath utterly expunged from existence.'
As Maram groaned again and shook his head, Master Juwain said to me, 'That is
something that Kane might say.'
My friends stood around regarding me. Although I was glad for their
companionship, I was keenly aware that we should have numbered not eight but