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

Alphanderry, I thought, could not be just pure luminosity. I could almost feel the
breath of some deep thing filling up his form with true life; a hand set upon his
shoulder would pass through him and send ripples through his glistening substance
as with a stone cast into water. Day by day, as the earth circled the sun and the sun
hurtled through the stars, it seemed that he might somehow be growing ever more
tangible and real.
'Hoy!' he laughed out, smiling at Master Juwain and me. As it had once been with my
brother, Jonathay, something in his manner suggested that life was a game to be
played and enjoyed for as long as one could, and not taken too seriously. But today,
despite his light, lilting voice, his words struck us all with their great seri-ousness:
'Hoy, time, time! - it runs like the Poru river into the ocean, does it not? And we
think that, like the Poru, it is in-exhaustible and will never run out.'
'What do you mean?' Master Juwain asked, looking at him.
Alphanderry stood - if that was the right word - on a mat of old leaves and trampled
ferns covering the ground. And he waved his lithe hand at me, and said, 'Val is right,
and too bad for that. We don't have as much time as we would like.'
But how do you know?' Master Juwain asked him. 'I just know,' he said. 'We can't
let Bemossed bear the entire burden of our hope.'
'But our hope, in the end, rests upon the Lightstone. And the Maitreya. As you saw,
Bemossed has kept Morjin from using it.'
'I did see that, I did,' Alphanderry said. 'But what was will not always be what is.'
Atara, I saw, smiled coldly at this, for Alphanderry suddenly sounded less like a
minstrel than a server.
'Did you think it would be so easy?' he asked Master Juwain.
'Easy? No, certainly not,' Master Juwain said. 'But I believe with all my heart that as
long as Bemossed lives, Morjin will never be able to use the Cup of Heaven to free
the Dark One.'
The hot Soldru sun burned straight down through the clearing with an
inextinguishable splendor. And yet, upon Master Juwain's mention of the Dark One -
also known as Angra Mainyu, the great Black Dragon - something moved within the
unmovable heavens, and I felt a shadow fall over the sun. It grew darker and darker,
as if the moon were eclipsing this blazing orb. In only moments, an utter blackness
seemed to devour the entire sky. I believed with all my heart that if Angra Mainyu,
this terrible angel, were ever freed from his prison on Damoom, then he would
destroy not only my world and its bright star, but much of the universe as well.
Master Juwain's brows wrinkled in puzzlement as he looked up at the sky to wonder
what I might be gazing at. So did my other friends, who seemed not to be afflicted
by my wild imaginings.
'The Seven,' Master Juwain said, turning back towards Alphanderry. 'aid Bemossed
with all their powers. And so Bemossed's power grows.'
'So does Morjin's,' Alphanderry said. 'For Angra Mainyu aids him.'
'Even so, I believe that Bemossed will resist Morjin's lies and his vile attacks.'
'I pray he will: I fear that he may not. For Angra Mainyu himself has lent all his spite
toward assaulting Bemossed's body, mind and soul.'
Master Juwain's brows pulled even tighter with worry. 'But how do you know this?
And how can that be? The greatest of the Galadin have bound him on Damoom, and
have laid protections against such things.'
'No shield is proof against all weapons,' Alphanderry said. 'Angra Mainyu has had
ages of ages to battle those who bind him. The shield you speak of has cracked.
And things will only get worse.'