"Anne Bishop - Black Jewels 00 - The Invisible Ring" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bishop Anne)

use on her return from the auction. They would eliminate any escorts waiting
for her and send a messenger to Lord Maryk, his second-in-command. Maryk,
along with carefully selected, experienced First and Second Circle guards,
would arrive at the station just ahead of the Gray Lady to finish the kill.
If that ambush wasn't completely successful, and Maryk and the men were
killed, he still had a way to keep track of the bitch and leave a trail the
marauder bands could follow. The hunt would continue until the Gray Lady was
destroyed. Krelis fingered the Master's badge on his left shoulder.
With the spells Dorothea had woven for him, his strategy would bring down
her most dangerous rival. That would prove to the aristo bastards in the
First and Second Circles that he wasn't some upstart Third Circle guard who
had gained a coveted position in the court by using his cock. Of course, he
didn't know any male who wouldn't use sex in order to achieve his own goals.
It hadn't always been like that.
He remembered that night so many, many years ago. He'd been permitted to
stay up when some of his father's friends had come to the house for their
weekly chess games and male conversation. The evening had grown late and
he'd been dozing on the couch when his father, who had a strong interest in
Hayll's history, especially where it pertained to the Blood, had gently
voiced his concern about some of the changes that had taken place in their
society over the past few centuries. Olvan had made no accusations, had
named no names, had merely pointed out some differences in the way males who
didn't serve in a court were treated. The next day, when he and Olvan were
taking a rambling walk along one of the country lanes near their village,
the Queen of the Province and twelve of her guards came riding up. The Queen
had snapped a few questions at Olvan, becoming more and more enraged with
his respectful replies. A few minutes later, Olvan dangled from a tree
branch. The spelled ropes around his wrists had prevented him from using
Craft to undo the knots or sever the ropes. Even if he'd managed to free
himself, his Jewels weren't dark enough to challenge the combined power of
the Queen and her guards. They let him hang there while he pleaded with the
Queen to tell him how he had displeased her. When the pleading finally
stopped, six of the guards uncurled their whips. The force of the blows
swung Olvan back and forth, back and forth. There had been no sympathy in
the guards' faces, no mercy in the strong arms that wielded the whips. If
anything, there had been a hint of fear in their eyes, as if coming in
contact with a male who didn't understand obedience would taint them somehow
and make them less desirable to the Queen they served. Through it all,
another guard had held Krelis and made him watch. When they rode away, they
left his father hanging there, half-dead. Krelis still remembered running
desperately to the nearest house for help, still remembered sitting next to
his father's bleeding body during the ride back home, still remembered the
Healer's reluctance to do anything. And he still remembered the moment,
years later, when he realized that the whipping had nothing to do with the
courteous answers his father had made to the Queen and everything to do with
Olvan's oldest and most trusted friends never once coming back to the house
or inviting his father to any of theirs. That was the moment he decided to
train to be a guard. That was the moment he understood that how males were
treated in the past didn't matter. The only thing that mattered to a young
Hayllian male was surviving the way things were now. And the only way to do