"Emerson, Ru - Night Threads 01 - The Calling of the Three UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emerson Ralph Waldo)they carried decimated six-tenths of the townspeople. Worse still:
Even after the Empiric Navy and a rough fleet of Bezjerian cargo ships routed the Lasanachi, the Gyn Hort were no longer on terms of trust with Dro Pent, a link not repaired for nearly a generation. The third event was not as readily linked to the Emperor, not, until long after. In the year 770, nineteen years before the in- vasion of Podhru Harbor and fifty leagues due north in the deep- est forests ofZelharri, Duke Amami-'s horse went suddenly wild during a hunt and threw his master. The Duke fell full into a previously undiscovered pool of Hell-Light and wasted away over the next four days. When he died the pool was visible day or night and Amami was no longer even recognizable as a man. He was survived by his widow Lizelle and their two young chil- dren, the nera-Duke Aletto and the sin-Duchess Lialta. and mourned by al] his Duchy. That number included his younger brother Jadek. who had ridden to the hunt with him, had pulled him from the Hell-Light without consideration of the personal risk. He had remained by his brother's bed most of the Duke's last days and appeared at the funeral in deepest mourning. His escort of fifty armsmen also wore mourning bands. Once Duke Amami was sealed in his stone cairn, however, granted the Duke's younger son, nor of sending his armsmen away. Two days after the funeral, he announced his betrothal to the Duchess Lizelle—to help her, he said earnestly, with the enormous tasks of governing the Duchy until Aletto should come of age. 4 RU EM6RSON Like his brother, Jadek was handsome, easygoing, comfort- able with other nobles and his householdmen alike. Unlike his brother, Jadek was not greatly loved, though few people could find any reason why they did not like him. A set to his mouth, or the flat way his eyes fixed on them, perhaps. The betrothal raised heavy suspicion of Jadek's motives and rumor was rife throughout Zeiharri. But there was no specific wrong thing to point to. Lizelle herself had appeared with "him: pale, quiet and clad in deep red mourning. But she made no protest at any time, then or after the wedding, which Jadek held at the beginning of Gourding-Month, a mere nine days later. Suspicion remained high thereafter, though most common men and women had the wit to voice such suspicions in whispers, if |
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