"Stephen Goldin - Storyteller" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

backgammon and chess, danced with a grace to make gazelles jealous, and composed poetry of beauty
and perception. She sang with a voice to rival the nightingale, and played excellently upon the lute, flute,
and drum. To top it all off, she was a pearl of matchless beauty, a girl of such exquisite features and pale
white skin, of long black hair and large black eyes, of delicate figure and pleasing speech, that all who
saw or heard her fell instantly in love.

Little wonder she became the prize of King Basir's otherwise harried life. He could deny her nothing. If
he even tried to say no to her, she would pout and call him a failure as a father, and that would remind
him of his many failures as a king. He would feel guilty for being so unreasonable, and always he would
relent and give Princess Oma exactly what she wanted, no matter how exorbitant the price.

On one point alone did King Basir remain resolved against his daughter. Knowing that he might never
have a male heir and wanting to secure the best marriage for her and his kingdom, he made a contract
when she was just a girl to wed her to the equally young Prince Ahmad of Ravan. Princess Oma cried
and screamed and pouted that she was being treated like a slave, and that she would never marry a man
she'd never met and didn't love, but on this matter the king remained adamant. The future of the kingdom
must be assured to prevent chaos after King Basir's death, and an alliance with Ravan would solidify
Marakh's stature among the world's nations.

Yet even on this important matter King Basir could not remain constant. After the death of King Shunnar
of Ravan, Shunnar's widow, Shammara, sent King Basir the gift of a lovely and enticing concubine named
Rabah, who worked unstintingly to convince the king that Shammara's son, Prince Haroun—rather than
Prince Ahmad, son of a concubine—would be the better marriage choice. Rabah became intimate friends
with the young Princess Oma and tried to convince her of Haroun's desirability as well. At the same time
one of the king's most trusted advisers, Tabib abu Saar, was also subverted to Shammara's cause and
began counseling King Basir to betray his solemn contract regarding Prince Ahmad. Against pressure
from all these sides, King Basir's resolve, never strong to begin with, could not stand up, and he agreed
to betray the prince and wed his precious Oma to Prince Haroun instead.

Thus, with Shammara's aid, was the plan devised to lure Prince Ahmad out of Ravan by insisting he
travel to Marakh to wed his bride. In a forest along the road, King Basir stationed two hundred of his
best soldiers, outnumbering the wedding party by four to one. Once Ahmad was dead, Princess Oma
could marry Prince Haroun and the two lands would be united as had always been the plan, with just a
slight change of names in the leading roles.

But it was now several days after the ambush was supposed to occur, and King Basir had received no
word from his men. His captain in the field had been given strict instructions to send a messenger back to
Marakh on their fastest horse to bring the news of the mission's success. Even a failure should have
merited some word, though that was unlikely considering the relative size of the two forces involved. But
days passed and no word came. King Basir worried and the fire in his stomach flamed like a blacksmith's
furnace.

All sorts of horrible contingencies raced through his mind. Prince Ahmad could have defeated the
ambush, returned to Ravan, killed Shammara, and even now be assembling an army to march in revenge
against Marakh. Or Shammara could have double -crossed both sides to play out a subtle game of her
own design. Scores of alternatives, each of them disastrous, danced through King Basir's mind, haunting
his sleep and ruining his digestion. He considered sending out spies, but was too afraid of what they might
find.

After a week and a half, the two retainers who'd gone to Ravan with Tabib abu Saar as King Basir's