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.""So this city is, as they say, ripe for the plucking," Golskyn murmured."Whereas any hothead can set men to swords out and shouting in the streets, superior beings can control, or at least steer what unfolds, to achieve intended ends.""Exactly," Mrelder agreed, a little too enthusiastically.Golskyn was suddenly facing him, his uncovered eye as cold and hard as ever."And so, my son of such wisdom and keen perception, what plans have you thought through to take advantage of this rare opportunity?"Mrelder swallowed, aware that he was on dangerous ground.He said cautiously, "The grafts, Father, are valuable.If we can master them, they improve us."Golskyn's smile was wintry."And?""Yet they are by definition limited to we who already believe in Amalgamation, who revere you for your vision and try to enact your desires."The priest waved impatiently at Mrelder to continue."More can be accomplished by improving others—if, through these improvements, we achieve a measure of control over those persons we.augment."Golskyn nodded."We gain tools, whether they know their servitude or not, and thus increase our reach and power.Continue."Mrelder took his first sip of cider, more to look away from his father's piercing gaze than to slake any thirst."Perhaps," he told his tankard carefully, "it's this control that's most useful to us, not the improvements themselves.I say nothing against the gods, mind, or the rightfulness of augmenting ourselves as they guide us to; I speak now only of others, non-believers.Nor am I necessarily saying such persons should remain non-believers.only that control itself is valuable and that there are other ways to achieve control than through—""Cutting useful bits from beasts most would deem 'monsters'?" Golskyn's tone was cold."So you look no higher than an alley-thug who seeks to gather a gang around him and so feel powerful? Tell me, O wise young one: What sense is there in controlling fools and weaklings?""They can go places and do things that augmented men cannot.If I'd gained and mastered that sahuagin arm, I wouldn't have been allowed anywhere near Lord Piergeiron.I'd have been wrestled down and carried off for his guardwizard to mind-ream!""Until you prove yourself before the gods," Golskyn said icily, "you are like all other men and so can serve me as the unsuspicious envoy you champion.I have one weakling; why do I require others?""But Father—""But son," Golskyn mocked him, "you can find words to do no more than feebly try to justify your own failures.You see Waterdeep well enough but still fail to see yourself.Has your vaunted sorcery brought us one of the Walking Statues yet? And if it did, how would you then protect the rest of us against the alerted Watchful Order or this Lord Mage of Waterdeep everyone whispers of with awe? Or the energetic buffoons of the local Watch, who can call the clanking-armored Guard out to march on us from all sides, to say nothing of fly down at our very heads? Have you a plan to defeat them all? Or some mighty spell you've been hiding from me?"Mrelder flushed, anger rising.Again his father was dismissing him with scorn.He should have known not to expect more.Hope, it seemed, was the latest of Golskyn's victims."Go and scheme some more," Golskyn of the Gods decreed coldly, pointing at the door, "and come up with something useful!"* * * * *The Meadows were lovely on a midsummer morn, fragrant with flowers, sweet grasses, and swift-drying dew.The cleared lands east of Waterdeep's walls were a fine hunting ground.Pheasants and grouse nested in plenty in the tall, wind-rippled grass, and plump hares were easy prey for the bright-feathered hawks of nobles.Taeros and Korvaun rode without speaking, their glossy mounts trotting briskly.Korvaun's invitation had come by messenger late the night before.Taeros had agreed to come riding at this ungodly hour—a mere two bells past dawn—mostly out of curiosity.On the pommel of his black mare's saddle rode a hooded peahawk very nearly identical to the bird perched on Korvaun's golden, white-maned stallion.The blue and green plumage of his friend's bird was perhaps a shade more brilliant, but his, Taeros thought, was more pleasingly marked.He waited as long as he could before raising the subject that had no doubt prompted this outing."You're seldom as angry as you were last night," he observed, as they halted on a little hillock they'd flown their hawks from hundreds of times before."How did Beldar so offend you?"Korvaun unhooded his hawk and undid its jesses.The bright little raptor immediately hopped onto his gloved wrist, and he tossed her into the air."Beldar's a fine lad, make no mistake," Korvaun said slowly, watching his hawk wing happily into the sky, "but he can be far too swift and loud in dismissal of common folk."Taeros echoed Korvaun's words over the casket: "The measure of a man is the worth he accords those around him."Korvaun's smile was faint."You don't sound convinced.""I agree in the main," Taeros replied cautiously, "and 'twas certainly tactless of Beldar to make such remarks in the presence of a servant girl." He turned his head suddenly from following the flight of the hawk to add slyly, "Especially a little brown lark in the employ of a white dove."Korvaun flushed, and Taeros whooped with laughter."Aye, I thought you paid rather close court to the elder Dyre lass.Though, forgive me, she seems.singularly lacking in color, despite her red hair [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.""So this city is, as they say, ripe for the plucking," Golskyn murmured."Whereas any hothead can set men to swords out and shouting in the streets, superior beings can control, or at least steer what unfolds, to achieve intended ends.""Exactly," Mrelder agreed, a little too enthusiastically.Golskyn was suddenly facing him, his uncovered eye as cold and hard as ever."And so, my son of such wisdom and keen perception, what plans have you thought through to take advantage of this rare opportunity?"Mrelder swallowed, aware that he was on dangerous ground.He said cautiously, "The grafts, Father, are valuable.If we can master them, they improve us."Golskyn's smile was wintry."And?""Yet they are by definition limited to we who already believe in Amalgamation, who revere you for your vision and try to enact your desires."The priest waved impatiently at Mrelder to continue."More can be accomplished by improving others—if, through these improvements, we achieve a measure of control over those persons we.augment."Golskyn nodded."We gain tools, whether they know their servitude or not, and thus increase our reach and power.Continue."Mrelder took his first sip of cider, more to look away from his father's piercing gaze than to slake any thirst."Perhaps," he told his tankard carefully, "it's this control that's most useful to us, not the improvements themselves.I say nothing against the gods, mind, or the rightfulness of augmenting ourselves as they guide us to; I speak now only of others, non-believers.Nor am I necessarily saying such persons should remain non-believers.only that control itself is valuable and that there are other ways to achieve control than through—""Cutting useful bits from beasts most would deem 'monsters'?" Golskyn's tone was cold."So you look no higher than an alley-thug who seeks to gather a gang around him and so feel powerful? Tell me, O wise young one: What sense is there in controlling fools and weaklings?""They can go places and do things that augmented men cannot.If I'd gained and mastered that sahuagin arm, I wouldn't have been allowed anywhere near Lord Piergeiron.I'd have been wrestled down and carried off for his guardwizard to mind-ream!""Until you prove yourself before the gods," Golskyn said icily, "you are like all other men and so can serve me as the unsuspicious envoy you champion.I have one weakling; why do I require others?""But Father—""But son," Golskyn mocked him, "you can find words to do no more than feebly try to justify your own failures.You see Waterdeep well enough but still fail to see yourself.Has your vaunted sorcery brought us one of the Walking Statues yet? And if it did, how would you then protect the rest of us against the alerted Watchful Order or this Lord Mage of Waterdeep everyone whispers of with awe? Or the energetic buffoons of the local Watch, who can call the clanking-armored Guard out to march on us from all sides, to say nothing of fly down at our very heads? Have you a plan to defeat them all? Or some mighty spell you've been hiding from me?"Mrelder flushed, anger rising.Again his father was dismissing him with scorn.He should have known not to expect more.Hope, it seemed, was the latest of Golskyn's victims."Go and scheme some more," Golskyn of the Gods decreed coldly, pointing at the door, "and come up with something useful!"* * * * *The Meadows were lovely on a midsummer morn, fragrant with flowers, sweet grasses, and swift-drying dew.The cleared lands east of Waterdeep's walls were a fine hunting ground.Pheasants and grouse nested in plenty in the tall, wind-rippled grass, and plump hares were easy prey for the bright-feathered hawks of nobles.Taeros and Korvaun rode without speaking, their glossy mounts trotting briskly.Korvaun's invitation had come by messenger late the night before.Taeros had agreed to come riding at this ungodly hour—a mere two bells past dawn—mostly out of curiosity.On the pommel of his black mare's saddle rode a hooded peahawk very nearly identical to the bird perched on Korvaun's golden, white-maned stallion.The blue and green plumage of his friend's bird was perhaps a shade more brilliant, but his, Taeros thought, was more pleasingly marked.He waited as long as he could before raising the subject that had no doubt prompted this outing."You're seldom as angry as you were last night," he observed, as they halted on a little hillock they'd flown their hawks from hundreds of times before."How did Beldar so offend you?"Korvaun unhooded his hawk and undid its jesses.The bright little raptor immediately hopped onto his gloved wrist, and he tossed her into the air."Beldar's a fine lad, make no mistake," Korvaun said slowly, watching his hawk wing happily into the sky, "but he can be far too swift and loud in dismissal of common folk."Taeros echoed Korvaun's words over the casket: "The measure of a man is the worth he accords those around him."Korvaun's smile was faint."You don't sound convinced.""I agree in the main," Taeros replied cautiously, "and 'twas certainly tactless of Beldar to make such remarks in the presence of a servant girl." He turned his head suddenly from following the flight of the hawk to add slyly, "Especially a little brown lark in the employ of a white dove."Korvaun flushed, and Taeros whooped with laughter."Aye, I thought you paid rather close court to the elder Dyre lass.Though, forgive me, she seems.singularly lacking in color, despite her red hair [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]