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

Rivkah. You have been discarded, thrown aside because of your ageing lines. Betrayal always returns to
those who betray."

Rivkah turned and stared at him, appalled. This was not strictly correct, but it was close enough to the
truth to hurt. Had the price for her betrayal of Searlas been the eventual death of StarDrifter's love for
her? What price would she pay for the hurt she had caused Magariz so many years ago? She licked her
lips and silently cursed her voice as it quavered.

"Then I am confident you will die a ghastly death, Jayme," she said.

Despite her brave words, Rivkah's entire body shuddered, and she flung the door open, running past
the startled guard and down the corridor.

Jayme smiled, remembering Rivkah's agitation. But the smile died as he recalled his second visitor.

Jayme had heard Axis well before he entered the room.

Axis stood outside the closed door for several minutes, talking with the guard posted there. Jayme
knew Axis was toying with him, letting the sound of his casual conversation outside increase Jayme's
trepidation.

And his tactic worked. Jayme's stomach heaved as he heard the key in the lock.

"Jayme," Axis said flatly as he stepped inside the room.

Axis had always carried an aura of power as BattleAxe -now it was magnified ten times and carried
with it infinite threat. Jayme opened his mouth to speak, but there was nothing to say.

"I have decided to put you on trial, Jayme. Rivkah has told me of your conversation," Axis said, "and
of your wretched effort to lay the blame for her attempted murder at Moryson's feet. But it is not only the
wrongs you have done me and my mother that you should answer for, Jayme, but the wrongs you have
done the innocent people of Tencendor."

Jayme found his voice and his courage. "Yet how many innocent people have you murdered for your
depraved

purposes, Axis? Justice always seems to rest with the victor, does it not?"

Axis stabbed an accusing finger at the former Brother-Leader. "How many innocent people did I
murder in the name of the Seneschal, Jayme? How many people, guilty of nothing save innocent
questions, did you send your BattleAxe out after, to ride down into the earth? How many innocent
people haveI murdered? You tellme. You were the one who sent me out to murder them in the name of
Artor!"

"I only did what Artor told me, Axis. I only did what was right for the Way of the Plough."

The anger faded from Axis' face and he stared incredulously at Jayme. "Have you never thought to
question the world about you? Have you never thought to question the narrow and brutal Way of the
Plough? Have you never stopped to think what beauty the Seneschal destroyed when it drove the Icarii
and the Avar beyond the Fortress Ranges a thousand years ago? Have you never stopped to question