Книга только для ознакомления
. It would have been easier to sink back,
rest for a moment, then try again. But this was a strong-willed
young man. This, then, would be the one who would give his life's
essence.
"Boy," Gadar whispered, "if there were another way-" But there
was no other way. Any other way had been lost to him the first
time he'd set his foot on this dark path. What was one more life
now balanced against the many he had taken and the one he must
preserve at the price of even his own soul? There was no profit,
and only dangerous distraction, in regret.
Gadar crossed the chamber, stopped at a large table, and
checked the components of the spell that he would work tonight.
Everything was ready: the wormwood, the powdered dust of a
crushed sapphire, the rosemary sprigs, the dark heart s blood of a
breeding doe.
Gadar had no intention of trapping the spirit of his chosen
victim in any temporal prison, and this was the difficult part of the
spell. Were he to simply thrust the spirit of the young man into an
en-mazed prison, he would not achieve his purpose. He had a
better use for his victim's life.
For that reason he had chosen the stocky young man with the
thick chestnut hair. Daryn, his name was, and he seemed strong
enough to provide the life essence the mage needed.
At least until he could find someone stronger.
The mage paused, glanced again at the lightening sky. It might
be, he thought, testing a new idea, that it was not such a bad thing
that his ghostly assassins had failed in their dark charge
|
