"Tanya Huff - Kigh 2 - Fifth Quarter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

"Allow me, Marshal." In one lithe motion, Bannon rose to his feet, set the clay

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruisw...uff%20-%20Four%20Quarters%20-%20Fifth%20Quarter.html (3 of 494)23-2-2006 17:31:30
Huff, Tanya - Four Quarters - Fifth Quarter (v1.0) (html).html


bottle on the table, and lightly touched his blade to the commander's neck, just
by the white pucker of the old scar.

Chela leaned forward slightly, eyes narrowed. "Aren't you removing the wrong
target?" she murmured.

Vree tapped the older woman gently on the shoulder and laid a line of steel
across her throat. "Don't move," she warned. "It's very sharp."

Apparently oblivious to the knife tip dimpling his skin, Neegan held out his
hand. "You owe me forty crescents, Marshal. I told you they could do it."


"I don't want this becoming a siege; they're on springs and we aren't." Marshal
Chela laced her fingers over her ample belly, the silver and ruby ring that
proclaimed her a priestess of Jiir, Goddess of Battles, gleaming on her shield
hand. "Any suggestions?"

Commander Leesh stepped forward, her voice a bare shade off eager. "Why
don't we just charge the city? They wouldn't survive an all-out attack."

"Neither would most of us," Chela pointed out dryly. Leesh was the youngest of
her four commanders and anxious to prove a political promotion deserved in
spite of evidence to the contrary. "And try to remember that the people of Ghoti
are as much citizens of the Havakeen Empire as you are. It is our duty to attempt
to find a solution that doesn't end in slaughter."

"Governor Aralt commands a great deal of personal loyalty." Neegan's harsh
whisper quieted the rising mutter of speculation. "His people follow him, not a


file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruisw...uff%20-%20Four%20Quarters%20-%20Fifth%20Quarter.html (4 of 494)23-2-2006 17:31:30
Huff, Tanya - Four Quarters - Fifth Quarter (v1.0) (html).html


series of… misguided ideals." The dead and dying of another, earlier rebellion
made themselves heard in the pause. "He promises them glory, a return to days
of petty kingdoms and hollow crowns." With a graceful gesture, the commander
sketched that past in the air. "What chance does the Empire's promise of peace,
order, and good government have against that?" Then he spread his hands,
offering the answer. "Aralt is the key. Everything revolves around him. Remove
him, and this rebellion falls apart."