"Dave Duncan - Tales of King's Blades 2 - Lord of The Firelands" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

"Flames and death!" the guest declaimed.
"This place is still the same disgusting midden it was
when I left. Have those windows ever been cleaned?"
"Certainly not!" said Mallory, who was
Second. "You can't break tradition that way in
Ironhall!"
"Those look like the same ashes in the hearth."
"They're traditional ashes," said
Victor, who fancied himself as a humorist.
"And the cobwebs are priceless."
Spender limped over to the fireplace to hunt
for his signature, for all the paneling and the
steeply pitched roof and even parts of the floor were
inscribed with the names of former candidates. Wasp
was written near the door, very small within an
overlarge initial; and he had found two other
Wasp inscriptions, although Master of Archives
had records of only one Blade by that name, an
undistinguished member of the Royal Guard back
in the days of Everard III. The other must have been
even earlier and spectacularly mediocre. It
would be the third Wasp who made the name
memorable!
Herrick was very dark, Victor unusually
blond, and Raider--who would not be coming--had hair
as red as a Bael's; but with that trivial
exception of coloring the seniors were as alike as
brothers: all lean and agile, moving with the wary
grace of jungle predators, neither too small
to be dangerous nor too large to be nimble.
Five years of constant effort, superb
instruction, and in most cases a dash or two of
conjuration had produced these fledgling Blades,
awaiting only their master's call. Even their
features seemed alike, with no extreme bat
ears or crooked teeth. Wasp wondered if he
was just noticing all this anew because Spender so
obviously belonged there, an older brother come
home to visit. Few Blades cared
to remember any other home. Wasp was an
exception there, but then he was exceptional in other
ways too painful to think about.
Raider hurtled up the stairs three at a
time and strode over to flop down on the floor under
the south window, putting his back against the wall and
stretching out his long legs. He caught Wasp's
eye and grinned at his surprise. Wasp rose
and went to sit beside him, putting friendship ahead of
comfort and provoking a minor tussle as three men
simultaneously tried to claim the chair he had