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.Most of them up until now had been accounts of stores, or very dull histories of the land before the arrival of the elves, with an occasional chronicle on the original conquest of the humans by the elven lords.The doorstop was one such; Shana had tried three times without success to thread her way through the labyrinthine prose.The most she could glean from it was that the author had a sneaking admiration for the elven overlords, however much he protested otherwiseshe often got the feeling that he considered the elven lords to be a civilizing force on the otherwise barbaric humans.If he was a typical specimen of an educated halfblood, small wonder that the elves had held sway for as long as they had.The book always made her want to wash her hands after she put it away, and not because of physical dirt.She was quite certain that if she had ever met the author of that work, she would have found him as repellent as his views.But thisthis was no chronicle written by an effete scribe sitting on a fat cushion and watching others act, with the detachment of a little tin god.This was a personal diary, a day-by-day account of the last moments of the Wizard War, written by someone who could understand no more than Shana why they had failed so close to victory.But she was getting some hints as to the "why"and the "how" was self-evident What if the elves had used traitors; humans or halfbloods intended to make trouble? Suppose they used halfbloods with mind-powers to actually manipulate the leaders of the wizard side, to make them jealous of each other, to make them so confident of winning that they figured they could take the time to get rid of a rival or two or three.That was what this journal was beginning to suggest, at least to her mind.Trouble within the ranks, but caused by the elven lords.That was a possibility that had evidently never occurred to the author of those scrawled passages; he could not imagine anyone of human or halfblood lineage who could willingly choose the elven lords' side over the wizards'.It had to be: How else would they have known, over and over, exactly when and where to strike the leaders in the midst of their own quarrels?It certainly made a great deal of sense, especially if that traitor had the human-magic powers to meddle Page 173with other peoples' minds.That was the one thing the wizards didn't guard against, because the elves couldn't read or influence thoughts.They never entertained the idea that one of their own might turn against them.One name kept recurring over and overnot as a powerful war-leader among the elves, but as a lord who was always at the right place, at the right time, taking wizard after wizard by surprise.It was a name that Shana had heard before, one she was coming to dread.Lord Dyran.From everything she knew or had learned these past several weeks, Lord Dyran was a lord to be reckoned with.Unlike his fellow lords, he gave humans (and, one supposed, halfbloods) full credit for intelligence.He had never been known to underestimate an enemy, and his schemes always contained layers of contingency plans.Clever, crafty, completely without scruples, it would be typical of him to think of subverting one of the wizards to his side.And that name had just cropped up again in the journal.Two-week, Month of the One-horn.Lord Dyran had been seen riding the bounds of the forest that hides us, and I feared the worst.Now the worst has come to pass.The last of us sought shelter here in the Citadel, thinking we could, perhaps, hide here in peace until the elven lords ceased to search for us.But another enemy has found us out, and although I have no proof, I feel Lord Dyran had something to do with it.Plague.We have been afflicted with a terrible, wasting fever.It strikes with no warning, no symptom of illness, and within one hour or less the victim is raving and burning with fever.Oh, I know what is said, that Leland Ander created this disease, and that it somehow escaped him.True, he was meddling with a fever, hoping to create a weapon to be used against the elven lords from afar.And true again, he was the first to fall victim.But I cannot think that he would have been so careless as to let the fever free of his control.No, it was Lord Dyran somehow, I know it in my bones.Four-week, Month of the One-horn.Now it is my turn.Like the others with the disease, I have locked myself in my room while the rest flee or avoid me.We were so close, so very close, to victory.Not even elf-shot, that cursed missile that kills or paralyzes upon merest contact, could save the elven lords.Nothing stopped usuntil we stopped ourselves.I am writing this, I think, in the hope that someday another of halfblood may read these words.Beware the elven lords! Beware their wiles, and expect bought traitors in your own ranks! Most especially, beware Lord Dyran, for he., knows the ways to weakness, the paths to subvert the soul.And he will use them.Shana turned the page, but that was all that remained.She didn't even know the writer's name, much less whether or not he survived the fever.She slammed the book down in frustration, and went hunting among the shelves for another personal chronicle, but found nothing.At least, not anything more by the unknown journal-writer, and no other personal narratives of the same sort.Finally, in hopes of at least learning more about the old wizards, she sorted the books by category, relegating everything that was not a history of some kind to the back shelves.Histories remained on the front shelves; not as many of them as she would have preferred.She did find more chronicles of the war, though; these were written with more detail, if less passion.Page 174Through them, she learned some of the tactics the wizards usedand some of the weapons they employed.Either these were tricks the wizards of the present day had forgotten, or else they hadn't yet decided Shana was trustworthy enough to learn them.Again and again, she had to marvel at the old wizards' abilities.And her guess was confirmed, not once, but a dozen times, that the wizards had been defeated by treachery from withincaused by the elves [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]