"Raymond E. Feist & Janny Wurts - empire 3 mistress of the empire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Feist Raymond E)

Except that since Mara was Servant of the Empire, her
popularity was too widespread. Fool Jiro might be, over

24 Mistress of the Empire

slighted manhood, but surely not so much that he would
invite the Emperor's wrath.

Lujan turned dark eyes toward Hokanu. 'That bit of
shell is all the evidence we have. Its very obviousness might
be subtle, as if by calling attention to House Anasati, we
might dismiss them at once and look elsewhere for the
culprits.' Fury coiled beneath his words. He, too, wanted
to strike in anger at the outrage that had been committed.
'It matters very little what I think,' he finished grimly. For
honor demanded that he do his Lady's will, absolutely and
without question. If Mara asked him to muster the Acoma
garrison and march suicidally to war, he would obey, with
all his heart and will.

Dusk dimmed the skylights in the great hall. Servants
entered on quiet feet and lit the lamps arrayed around
Ayaki's bier. Scented smoke sweetened the air. The play
of warm light softened death's pallor, and shadow veiled
the misshapen lumps of the injuries beneath the silk robes.
Mara sat alone in vigil. She regarded her son's oval face,
and the coal-dark hair that, for the first time she could
remember, had stayed combed for more than an hour.

Ayaki had been all of her future, until that moment of
the gelding's crushing fall. He had been her hopes, her
dreams, and more: the future guardian of. her ancestors
and the continuance of the Acoma name.

Her complacence had killed him.

Mara clenched white fingers in her lap. She never, ever,
should have lulled herself into belief that her enemies could
not touch her. Her guilt at this lapse in vigilance would
follow her all her days. Yet how bleak any contemplation
of tomorrow had become. At her side lay a tray with the
picked-over remains of a meal; the food had no taste that
she could recall. Hokanu's solicitude had not comforted;
she knew him too well, and the echoes of her own pain

Tragedy

25

and anger she could sense behind his words galled her into