"Dave Duncan - Tales of King's Blades 5 - The Jaguar Knights" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

Dave Duncan

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“They’ve been in council ever since. No one’s allowed in or out ex-cept inquisitors. Aplagueof
inquisitors!”
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That news merely deepened the mystery. Sir Flint and Sir Huntley were typical examples of Blades who
failed to find a real life after being knighted and discharged from the Guard. Both men were in their fifties,
idling away years at Ironhall, instructing boys in fencing and horseman-ship, yet still hankering after the
sins of the city.Whenever Grand Mas-ter needed a dispatch taken to Court, men like Flint or Huntley
would accept couriers’ wages, knowing that the skilled young pimps of the Guard would always find
them some of what Ironhall lacked.

So whatever had provoked this emergency had originated at, or near to, Ironhall.Although it was
officially headquarters of the Loyal and An-cient Order of the King’s Blades, in practical terms it was
only a school and orphanage, a factory for turning unwanted rebellious boys into the world’s finest
swordsmen. Wolf could imagine nothing whatsoever that could happen there to provoke a
middle-of-the-night meeting of the King in Council.

He could guess why he had been summoned, though. When the weather was this bad near Grandon, it
must be mean as belly worms up on Starkmoor. Grand Master would not have sent anyone on such a
journey unless the matter was supremely urgent, and he had thought the trek perilous enough to send two
of them. Most likely his despatch re-quired an answer, and Athelgar had decided to give his least favorite
Blade the putrid job of riding posthaste to Ironhall over snowbound roads in this appalling cold.That
would be a typical piece of royal spite.

There were Blades on duty even outside the anteroom, which was not usual. The rest of the graveyard
shift was sprawled around on the chairs inside it, sulky and unshaven. They looked shocked when they
saw the man Damon had fetched. Damon halted, Wolf kept going. Sir Sewald had the inner door; he
tapped and opened it so the newcomer could march straight in without having to break stride.

The Cabinet Chamber was large but gloomy, newly repaneled in wood like molasses and furnished with
spindly chairs from some lady’s boudoir. Athelgar had terrible taste and his expensive renovations were
methodically ruining every palace he owned.

4



THE J A GU AR KNIGHTS

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