"Lisa Goldstein - Summer King, Winter Fool" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldstein Lisa)

Valemar handed his cloak and torch to the porter and went into
the banquet room. A page came to escort him and his cousin to
their places. Valemar sat and looked around at the other guests,
searching for Tamra and not finding her anywhere. She had told
him she would be at the banquet. Perhaps she had come in a clever
disguise, but he felt certain he could recognize her from her mouth
and figure alone.
The half-masks hid the eyes and foreheads of all the guests but,
as always, Val could make fair guesses at who they were from their
position in the room. The king’s half-brothers and half-sisters sat on
the raised dais, two each on either side of the carved chair reserved
for Gobro IV. At one of the lower tables Val saw the King’s Pen and
at another the King’s Axe; he looked around for the King’s Coin and
found him at the far end of the hall, nearly opposite the king. The
treasurer had refused to grant more money to the private purse and
was still suffering Gobro’s displeasure.
The broad-shouldered man near the front of the hall had to be
Andosto, said by some to be the grandson of the god
Callabrion—said in whispers, because his grandparents were still
alive. He sat next to Riel, talking to her in a low voice. Appropriate,
Val thought, because Riel, a former lover of the king, was herself
rumored to be the daughter of the god Scathiel. Her beauty, at any
rate, was legendary; even men who had never met her composed
sonnets to it. On her other side sat her husband, newly ennobled by
the king in gratitude for his wife’s favors. He looked startled and
confused and delighted; the gold ring of his knighthood reflected
back to the candlelight.
Now Val could see three or four of the king’s old lovers scattered
throughout the room. And in the shadows at the far corners sat a
few cripples and beggars; it was the king’s custom to welcome the
Wandering God in all weathers and not just at the changing of the
seasons.
Trumpets sounded. Conversation stopped as the herald
announced the king: “Gobro IV, King of Etrara and the Southern
Marches, Ruler of Udriel and Astrion, Master of the Seas and the
Son of Sbona.” The king was a short plump man, addicted to sweets
made of vanilla and ginger; folks whispered that his hands were
always sticky. His clothes and mask were gold and black and white,
the royal colors.
 “Look where he comes, the Ascending God,” Narrion said as the
king climbed heavily to the dais. A few folks at the table laughed;
Gobro was not popular with either the nobility or the people.
The trumpets sounded again and a train of knights came into the
room, carrying several dishes. One of the knights tasted the meal
and then set the dishes before the king. Gobro nodded, and at that
signal pages began to pass through the room with trays of food.
A page set a dish of oysters covered with sauce in front of Val,
then moved on to set another dish before Narrion. Val took a bite; it
was too sweet, as were all the dishes served by the king. Near him
he heard someone talking about King Tariel III and his legendary