"Greg Keyes - Age of Unreason 2 - A Calculus of Angels" - читать интересную книгу автора (Keyes J Gregory)
Prologue
Confession
Peter flinched at the single drop of blood that spattered onto his coat. Even
thirty feet away, one ran that risk when the knout was being used. In
experienced hands, the brutal short whip could cut to the bone and raise a
fountain of blood; and the man wielding this knout was a master. Peter
watched impassively as the last of the strokes fell. The victim was long past
screaming. Instead he croaked pitifully, face more confused than anguished, as
if his mind refused to accept what had been done to his body.
Peter approached the tortured man, who was suspended, arms tied behind his
back. His weight had dislocated them, so that now he looked almost comical,
as if his head had been put on reversed. Peter wondered if they had gone too
far—if Alexis would even be capable of speech—but finally, breath rasping, the
prisoner looked up. He was weeping, tears turning sanguine where they
crossed the lips he had bitten through.
“I am sorry, my Emperor.” He groaned.
A CALCULUS OF ANGELS
Peter’s throat tightened. It was only with difficulty that he said, “I have heard
you wished me dead.”
Alexis convulsed, his face contorting almost beyond recognition, as if it, too,
had been beaten. “I am a wretch,” he sobbed, “and now I will die. I hope I will.
I have wronged you, and do not deserve to live.”
“You mean you do not have the strength to live, Alexis,” Peter softly replied.
The prisoner coughed in what might have been a parody of laughter. “All men
are not like you,” he managed. “If you are the measure of strength, what other
man is strong?”
Peter trembled slightly. If you only knew, he thought. He again cleared his
throat.
“It grieves me it has come to this, Alexis. It is my own failure, I know.”
“What you asked was impossible,” Alexis spat. Peter suddenly, almost gladly,
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