"Sara Douglass - The Axis Trilogy 3 - StarMan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglass Sara)

"Friend." Timozel stood by the Dark Man's side, shaking sand from his cloak. "You have not told me
your name."

The Dark Man pulled his hood closer. "I have many names," he said quietly, "but you may call me
Friend."

As Timozel climbed into the boat he realised how familiar Friend's voice sounded. Why? Who was
he? Where had he heard the voice before?

"Timozel? Is anything the matter?"

Timozel stared at the man, then he shook himself and climbed in.

"No, Friend," he said. "Nothing's the matter."

Jayme abased himself before the icon of his beloved Artor the Ploughman, the one true god of all
Acharites - or at least, whohad been until the setbacks of recent weeks.

Once the powerful Brother-Leader of the Seneschal, most senior mediator between Artor the
Ploughman and the hearts and souls of the Acharites, now Jayme mediated only between his own broken
soul and the ghosts of his dreams and ambitions. He had once manipulated kings and peasants' alike;
now he manipulated little more than the buckles on his sandals. He had once resided in the great Tower
of the Seneschal; now the Forbidden had reclaimed the Tower and burned the accumulated learning of
over a thousand years. He had once sat easy with power, protected by the might of the military wing of
the Seneschal, the Axe-Wielders and their BattleAxe. But now the remaining Axe-Wielders had cast
aside their axes to serve the ghastly Forbidden, and their BattleAxe now claimed to be a Prince of the
Forbidden. The BattleAxe. He had been as a son to Jayme, yet had betrayed both Jayme's love and the
Seneschal in leading the Forbidden back into Achar.

Jayme had once enjoyed the friendship and support of his senior adviser, Moryson. But now
Moryson had deserted him.

Slowly Jayme rose to his knees and stared about the chamber where he had been incarcerated for the
past nine days.

They had not left him much. A single wooden chair and a plain table. A bedroll and blanket. Nothing
else. Axis believed Jayme might try to kill himself, and so guards had emptied the room of everything
save what Jayme needed for basic comfort.

Twice a day guards came to bring him food and attend his needs, but otherwise Jayme had been left
alone.

Apart from his two visitors. His eyes clouded as he remembered.

Two days after the death of Achar's hopes in the Chamber of the Moons, the Princess Rivkah had
come to see him . . .
 She entered the room silently and Jayme did not know she was there until he stood from his devotions
before the sacred icon of Artor.