"Kerr,.Katharine.-.Westlands.01.-.A.Time.Of.Exile" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

"Your Highness?" Aderyn rose and bowed. "I, too, will beg for mercy. The lad is very young."
"Old enough to know the laws. This injury doesn't concern you, good councillor."
"Your Highness?" Halaberiel rose and bowed. "Never would I question the wisdom of your judgment, but may I ask one thing?"
"You may, my prince."
"Is the penalty for this offense death?"
"It's not."
"But the lad's young and might well die from so many lashes."
"Just so," Addryc said with a nod. "Very well. I hereby lower the penalty to fifteen. Dovyn, raise your head and look at the man you thought your enemy. He's brought you mercy."
Slowly Lord Dovyn raised his head and turned Halaberiel's way, but his cornflower-blue eyes, blackish in the candlelight, burned with hatred.
Prince Addryc picked up the ceremonial sword and flipped it point upward, holding it high.
"Hear then my decree," Addryc said. "Tieryn Melaudd will pay the full lwdd for Councillor Aderyn's wound. Lord Dovyn will receive fifteen lashes in the public ward from my executioner tomorrow at dawn." He lowered the sword and rapped the pommel three times on the table. "So be it."
Melaudd began to weep, a little sob under his breath, the rusty tears of a man who hasn't wept since he was a little lad. At Addryc's call, two guards stepped in, hauled Dovyn to his feet and marched him out, with Melaudd trailing after. Halaberiel caught Aderyn's elbow and helped him bow to the prince; then they left Addryc alone with his righteous rage.
"How do you feel, Ado? Well enough to come to my suite for a goblet of mead?"
"I'm not a drinking man, but tonight I will. But I have to go down to the great hall first-there's someone I need to see."
In the great hall, they found the various human warbands drinking quietly, free of elven presence, as Halaberiel had told the men of the Westfolk to stay up in their own quarters. Off to one side Aderyn found Cinvan sitting with a beefy blond lad whom he introduced as Garedd.
"I'm sorry, lad," Aderyn said. "I tried to speak for mercy, but the prince judged otherwise. I'm afraid they're going to flog your lord tomorrow."
"So we heard. The guards came out and told us the news. It aches my heart, but I'm no man to question a prince."
"It aches mine, too," Garedd said. "Here, sir, is it true that your prince spoke for mercy?"
"It is. It's thanks to him that the lad will get only fifteen strokes."
On the morrow, Aderyn stayed in his chamber when the prince's justice met Dovyn's bare back. From his refuge up in the main broch, he heard the distant noise of the various warbands being marched out to witness what happened to a man who broke the prince's discipline. Then there was a deadly silence. Once he heard a faint sound that might have been a scream. Aderyn did his best to think of other things until he heard the crowd breaking up down below. In a few minutes, Halaberiel and the rest of the elves came up and crowded into his chamber.
"I've never seen such a barbarous thing," Halaberiel said.
Jezryaladar untied a skin of mead, took a long swallow, and passed it to the prince, who downed a good bit of it before he passed it on. Halaberiel began pacing back and forth in silence. The skin of mead went round till it was empty.
Late that morning, a page came, asking the prince and his councillor to attend upon Addryc. Aderyn and Halaberiel followed the lad into the prince's private chambers in one of the secondary towers. This was a comfortable room, furnished with carpets and tapestries, carved chairs set by a small hearth of pink sandstone, and windows open to a view of a garden. Goblet of mead in hand, Addryc was standing by the hearth, and Melaudd was sitting slumped in one of the chairs. Addryc had the page serve Halaberiel and Aderyn mead, then sent the lad away. During all of this, Melaudd never moved or took his eyes from the floor.
"I see no reason to drag this discussion into open court," Addryc said. "Now, as far as I'm concerned, Lord Dovyn has paid the price the law demands, and that matter is over and done with. Do you and your councillor agree, my prince?"
"We do," Halaberiel said. "Tieryn Melaudd, you have my honest sympathy."
Melaudd turned his way slack-eyed. He seemed to have aged ten years in this single morning.
"I suppose I should thank you, but I can't find it in my heart."
Addryc went tense and stepped forward.
"Well, by the hells! What am I supposed to do-mince and grovel before the cause of my son's shame? Before this prince rode in, everything was as smooth as cream, but now I see the man I serve twisted this way and that by a foreigner!"
"Tieryn Melaudd." Addryc's voice was silky. "You forget yourself."
Melaudd opened his mouth to reply, thought better of it, and rose to bow to the prince.
"Now, here, my lord," Aderyn said to Melaudd. "We still need to reach accommodation over the matter of the land."
"Perhaps. But I wonder in my heart why I should be forced to accommodate."
"Do you?" Halaberiel snapped. "Now you listen to me! That land is ours, not yours, not the prince's, not any man in Eldidd's. Do you understand me, Melaudd? The only claim you have is the one I allow you to have."
"Oh, is it now? For years and years I haven't seen one man or woman either on that land. It's been lying there going to waste-"
"Melaudd!" Addryc took another step forward. "We determined the question of use in the malover."
Melaudd swallowed his words with a dagger glance at both princes. Halaberiel nodded Addryc's way, then went on.
"I came in here willing to offer your cursed whelp a demesne out of my ancestral territory, and all I get is arrogance. Very well, then. A prince of my line can be just as arrogant when he needs to be. If your son or one of his blasted riders sets one horse's hoof on that land, then some of my people will be there to spear him off his wretched saddle."
The tieryn turned to Addryc with a snarl.
"And I suppose I'm expected to take this in your palace, Your Highness?"
Addryc hesitated, a man walking the edge of a sword with bare feet.
"I've given my judgment. If the prince of the Westfolk withdraws the matter from my arbitration, there's naught I can do."
"Naught?" Melaudd's word was a howl of rage.
"Just that. I can neither furnish you with aid nor stand in the way of what you see fit in this matter. But the decree about the burial ground still stands. If ever that sacred ground is despoiled, my personal guard will deal with the criminals, and I will lead them myself."
"Indeed?" Halaberiel said. "My respect for Eldidd justice has just shattered, Your Highness, no matter what fine words you use. You're giving Melaudd the right to wage war on my folk."
"I'm giving him naught of the sort! You don't understand! By relinquishing my jurisdiction, I've opened the way for you to appeal directly to my father, the king, himself. I'll see to it that he takes the matter up straightaway."
"The king!" Melaudd sputtered. "You'd let this . . . this creature go to the king!"
Addryc flung up one hand for a slap, caught himself, and froze.
"Don't distress yourself over it, Melaudd," Halaberiel said. "I have no desire to deal with weasels any longer, not even the king of weasels. Well and good then, Prince Addryc. You've made your decision, and I've made mine. We will be leaving your hospitality this very afternoon. I only wish now that you'd given Dovyn the full twenty-five strokes."
Motioning to his councillor, Halaberiel strode out of the chamber. When he looked back, Aderyn saw Addryc grabbing Melaudd's arm; then a page closed the heavy door with a bow. As they made their way through the twisting corridors of Aberwyn's broch, Halaberiel said not a word, and Aderyn was afraid to speak to him. When they got back to his suite, though, they found Namydd waiting anxiously among the elves.