"Emerson, Ru - Night Threads 01 - The Calling of the Three UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emerson Ralph Waldo)

at all. Particularly when it became clear that men who spoke
louder now and again vanished. And men who had served Duke
Amami—his closest friends and highest-ranked householdmen—
left Duke's Fort. Most of those left the Duchy entirely. Merchant
families complained of new competition or restructured taxes
and fees, and moved away—many to neighboring Sikkre with its
sprawling market at the center of four trade-roads; others to
coastal Bezjeriad, which increasingly rivaled the Emperor's port
city for traffic.

Emperor Shesseran knew within hours of Amami's death, and
of Jadek's actions after, for Zeiharri bordered the northern edge
of his Andar Perighan estates. But so long as Jadek paid the
Duchy's semiannual taxes and sent the proper number of arms-
trained men on request, he did nothing. And Jadek, knowing
the Emperor would not interfere without greater cause than a
dreadful accident and a hasty marriage, was much too clever to
make any overt move to supplant nera-Duke Aletto.

After all, he knew there was no need while Aletto was still a
green boy and so barred from ruling. Until the nera-Duke passed
his twenty-fifth birthday, Jadek was for all practical purposes
Duke. Even after that date passed, there had been excuses, ways
to keep wealth and power, ways that did not involve a frontal
attack. Particularly if one took into account all factors, including
Aletto's physical condition.

There was also Lizelle, of course; she had been still young,
and she had already borne healthy children. There could have
been an heir for Jadek—a boy who would not be next in the
succession but would have a foot in the door. Unfortunately for
Jadek, Lizelle irritatingly never quickened.

And so, Jadek waited, and planned, until the Spring of the

WE CALLINQ OF FHE CTREE 5

Emperor's Blossom-Month Fest—Fifth Month, Sixth Day of the
year 789. The numbers would not fall in such a pattern again
for more than a hundred years and a full moon-season of secular
and religious festivals were being set. While Shesseran XIV was
so deeply involved in planning and rehearsing the Fest, the man
who had taken his brother's wife and her right of interim rule
moved to consolidate the rest of the Duchy. His Duchy.

I

SIN-DUCHESS Lialla had eaten bread spread with a sweetened
apple mash in the small courtyard, rather than face a midday
meal at the family table. It wasn't enough food and she would